* * -■> X *&* ' x« T fyxmll Hwtwitjj ptag Cornell University Library arV13975 The student's manual of the English lang 3 1924 031 301 827 olin.anx Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031301827 The Student's Manual of the English Language. ' LECTUEES ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By GEOKGE P.^MAESH. EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL LECTURES AND NOTES, By WILLIAM §MITH, LL.D., CLASSICAL EXAMINER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, AND EDITOR OF THE* 'DICTIONARIES OF GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, BIOGRAPHY, MYTHOLOGY, AND GEOGRAPHY,' FIFTH EDITION. LONDON: JOHN MUEEAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET. 1868. C3 UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT WORK. THE STUDENT'S HUME : A History of England from the Earliest Times to the Revolution of 1688. Based on the History by David Hume, corrected and continued to Eecent Times. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. ed. , %* Questions on the Student's Hume. 12mo. 2s. THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. From the Earliest Times to the Establishment of the Second Empire in 1852. Edited by De. Wm. Smith. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. ,7s. 6d. THE STUDENT,'S s HISTORY OF GREECE From the Earliest Times to thf/Roman Conquest, with the Histqry of Literature and Art. By Dk. Wm? Smith. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. Is. 6d. *»* Questions on the Student's Greece. 12 THE STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ROME."\FrcJm the Earliest Times t( the Establishment of the Empire, flith the History of LiteratureSand Art. By Dean Liddell. WoodcutsJ Post 8vo. 7s. &d. THE STUDEWT'S -GIBBON: AnEpttome/w the History of the Decline JttoHF*lkoe_1Ro}ie, in corporat ing the researches of recent writers. By Dr. Wm. Smith. Woodcuts. - r - THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY. By Rev. W. L. Bevah. Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY. By Rev. W. L. Bevan. Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6o3. - THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By T. B. Shaw. Edited, with Notes, by Dr. Wm. Smith. Post 8vo. 7s. ed. THE STUDENT'S SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By T. B. Shaw. Edited, with Notes, by Dr. Wm. Smith. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. From thf Creation to the Return of the Jews from Captivitt. Maps and Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. 6<2. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. With an Introduction, containing the connection of the Old and Netv Testament. Maps and Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 7s. ed. THE STUDENT'S BLACKSTONE. A Systematic Abridgment of the entire Commentarif.3, adapted to the Present State of the Law. By Malcolm Kerb, LL.D., Post 8vo. 7s. ed. THE STUDENT'S MANUAL OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY. With Quotations and References. By William Fleming, T)D. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. PKEFACE. The publication of the present Work in this country re- quires a few words of explanation. I had undertaken, in conjunction with my friend and colleague, the late Dr. Donaldson, a history of the English language, and had already written the introductory chapters and collected materials for the subsequent portion of the work, when his lamented death, at a time when I was burthened with other literary engagements, compelled me to postpone the design. Our purpose, however, had been, to some extent, anticipated by Mr. Marsh's excellent ' Lectures on the English Language ;' and as I had not sufficient leisure to carry out alone our original plan, I thought that I should be rendering an acceptable service to the students of our language and literature by republishing these Lectures, with the addition of some of the materials which I had collected for our own work. Such is the origin of this republication ; and it gives me great pleasure to acknow- ledge the courtesy of Mr. Marsh, who, as soon as he heard of my intention, kindly forwarded to me a copy of his book, with several corrections and additions. Mr. Marsh, who now holds the post of Minister of the United States at the court of the King of Italy, delivered the following Lectures in the autumn and winter of 1858-59 at Columbia College in the city of New York. They formed a course of what he terms ' Post-Graduate Lectures,' and were intended, he says, " to excite a more general in- terest among educated men and women in the history and essential character of their native tongue, and to recom- mend the study of the language in its earlier literary a 2 IV PREFACE. monuments rather than through the medium of grammars and linguistic treatises." This plan seems to me prefer- able to a systematic grammatical course, which is usually repulsive and seldom instructive to older students ; and it has been attended with such success that the work has not only reached a fourth edition at New York in the course of two years, but has also received the emphatic commenda- tion of the most competent judges in this country. It might be liable to misconstruction if I were to point out what appear to me the peculiar excellences of the book as contrasted with other works upon the same subject ; but I may without impropriety quote the opinion of one of the ablest, perhaps the ablest living writer on the Science of Language, who remarks that " Mr. Marsh's Lectures cer- tainly constitute one of the most acceptable contributions to English scholarship which we have received for many years from the other side of the Atlantic ;" and that " we hardly know of any work that we could more honestly recommend to those who, without wishing to dive very deep into Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, and Gothic, would be glad to learn all that is known about the origin, the his- tory, and character of their own tongue." With respect to the additions I have made as Editor, I may mention, in the first place, that I have substituted for the first two Lectures, which are chiefly introduc- tory, two new chapters upon the origin, affinities, and constituent elements of the English language. In order to make the work as useful as possible to students preparing for the examinations of the India Civil Service, the Uni- versity of London, and the like, it seemed advisable to enter more fully into these subjects than was consistent with the Author's original plan. For the same reason I have treated at some length of the original inhabitants of Great Britain, and have discussed the question of an early Ger- manic population, which Lappenberg and most modern writers suppose to have been settled in our island before the Anglo-Saxon conquest. Eor these chapters I am there- PREFACE. V fore alone responsible, though I have incorporated in them some of Mr. Marsh's remarks. In the remaining Lectures I have strictly confined myself to the duties of an editor. The only liberties I have taken with the text have been the omission of a few passages which I considered irrele- vant or erroneous, the correction of an occasional gramma- tical inaccuracy, and the alteration of a word or phrase here and there, rendered necessary, or at least advisable, by the republication of the book in this country ; but in no instance have I inserted in the test any additions of my own, but have placed them in the form of notes at the foot of the page, or at the end of each lecture. The remarks in Mr. Marsh's Appendix have been transferred to their ap- propriate places in the body of the work ; and some of his longer notes have been inserted at the close of the lectures, in order not to interrupt the continuous perusal of the book. The additions" I have made are intended more particularly for the benefit of the student ; and among the many writers whom I have consulted and quoted, I desire to express my obligations more especially to Dr. Guest, who probably possesses a more accurate knowledge of the older forms of our language and literature than any living scholar." VV. S. London, February, 1862. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. By the Editor. l'Ans Origin of the English Language 1 Notes and Illustrations : — A. Cognate Words in the Indo-European Family 20 B. On certain supposed German Names in Great Britain, mentioned by Ptolemy 22 C. The Account of the Anglo-Saxon Conquest in Bede and the Saxon Chronicle 22 D. Connexion between Friesians and Saxons 23 E. The Friesian Dialects 24 F. Anglo-Saxon Words for Language, and the Etymology of Lyden and Gospel 25 LECTURE II. By the Editor. Oa the Celtic, Danish, and Latin Elements in the English Language . . 27 Notes and Illustrations : — • A. On the Early Inhabitants and Xanguages of the British Islands 42 B. English Words of Celtic Origin ^ 45 C. On the North-Anglian Dialect 46 LECTURE III. Practical Uses of Etymology 48 Notes and Illustrations :— A. On English Dictionaries . . 63 B. Sky in sense of Cloud .. .. 64 Paos 65 viii CONTENTS. LBOTUEB IV. Foreign Helps to the Knowledge of English LECTURE V. 75 Study of Early English Notes and Illustrations :— Early English Grammars ° ' LECTUEE VI. Sources and Composition of English — 1 88 Notes and Illustrations : — Etymology of Law and Eight 104 LECTUEE VII. Sources and Composition of English — II 105 Notes and Illustrations : — Comparison of Matthew vii. 27 and Luke vi. 49 119 LECTUEE VIII. Vocabulary of the English Language — 1 120 Notes and Illustrations t~ A. Spenser's Language 132 B. Supposed Americanisms in Old English 132 C. Pair of Stairs 133 LECTUEE IX. Vocabulary of the English Language — II .. .. 134 Notes and Illustrations : — Inseparable Particles ign CONTENTS. Vi LECTURE X. JpABE Vocabulary of the English Language — III 151 LECTUEE XL Vocabulary of the English Language — IV 163 Notes and Illustrations : — A. Etymology of Harvest 176 B. Etymology of Cattle 176 C. Etymology of Mister and Metier 177 D. The word Species 177 LECTURE XII. Vocabulary of the English Language — V .. .. 178 LECTURE XIII. Interjections and Intonations 191 LECTURE XIV. The Noun, Adjective, and Verb 201 Notes and Illustrations : — A. On the phrases My Lone, Her Lone .. ' 215 B. Anglo-Saxon Terminations of Nouns and Adjectives .. 216 C. Termination -ster 217 D. English Diminutives 217 E. Anglo-Saxon Prefixes 219 F. On the Want of a Future Tense 220 LECTURE XV. Grammatical Inflexions — 1 222 Notes and Illustrations; — A. Owe and Ought 237 B. On the Origin of Inflexions 237 X CONTENTS. LECTURE XVI. PAG5 Grammatical Inflexions — II Notes and Illustrations : — Corps, for living body 253 LECTURE XVII. Grammatical Inflexions — III 254 LECTURE XVIII. Grammatical Inflexions — IV .. .. 266 Notes and Illustrations : — A. Anglo-Saxon Inflexions 283 B. On the use of the Pronouns in Old English 291 C. " It " as an Indeterminate Pronoun 292 *D. The Origin of s as the sign of the Possessive Case in English 293 LECTURE XIX. The English Language as affected by the art of Printing — 1 296 Notes and Illustrations : — On the words Make, Maker 309 LECTURE XX. The English Language as affected by the art of Printing; — II 310 LECTURE XXI. The English Language as affected by tne art of Printing — III. .. .. 321 LECTURE XXII. Orthoepical Changes in English aog Notes and Illustrations :— On the Connexion between Orthocpical and Syntactical Changes • _ _ g57 CONTENTS. xi LECTURE XXIII. PAO£ Rhyme 358 LECTURE XXIV. Accentuation and Double Rhymes 370 LECTURE XXV. Alliteration, Line-rhyme, and Assonance 387 LECTURE XXVI. Synonyms and Euphemisms 409 Notes and Illustrations : — ■ A. On the use of the particles Yea and Yes, Nay and No . . 422 B. On the word Soon 425 LECTURE XXVII. Translation 42», LECTURE XXVIII. The English Bible 440 LECTURE XXIX. Corruptions of Language 458 Notes and Illustrations : — On the Participial Noun used Passively 472 LECTURE XXX. The Englisn Language in America , .. .. 473 Appendix — Origin of Language 485 index 493 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. LECTURE I. By the Editor. obigin of the english language. § 1. The Indo-European family of languages : origin and meaning of Compara- tive Philology. § 2. Diiference between derived and cognate word's. § 3. The six principal branches of the Indo-European family. § 4. Division of the Teutonic branch into the German and Scandinavian. § 5. Arguments in favour of German settlements in Britain before the Anglo-Saxon conquest. § 6. Objections to the commonly-received account of the Anglo-Saxon con- quest. § 7. Examination of the authorities for the Anglo-Saxon conquest. § 8. Reasons for believing the main facts of the story to be true : examination of the external evidence. § 9. Examination of the internal evidence. § 10. Settlements of the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. § 11. Origin of the Saxons : synonymous with the Friesians. § 12. Origin of the Angles. § 13. Origin of the Jutes. § 14. Origin of the term English. § 15. Anglo-Saxon language. § 16. Semi-Saxon. § 17. Old English. § 18. Middle English and Modern English. § 19. Terms Philology and Linguistics. § 1. The English Language belongs to that extensive family of languages to which the name of Indo-European is usually given. The classification of the different languages of the earth into a few great families belongs to the science of comparative philology, and can be only briefly noticed upon the present occasion. This science is of recent origin. Till the latter end of last century the relative antiquity of languages was a favourite subject of inquiry, and there was great anxiety to discover the one primseval tongue of all the inhabitants of the earth. The preference was usually given to the Hebrew, which was maintained to have been spoken in Paradise, and to have been the original language from which all others were derived. To support this opinion the most absurd and ridiculous arguments were brought forward ; mere similarity of sound between words of different languages, in no wise related to each other, was regarded as a sufficient proof of their connexion ; and the whole study was disgraced by such puerile trifling as to create in the minds of all sensible persons a rooted dislike to every Eng. Lan. b 2 DERIVED AND COGNATE WORDS. Lect. I. inquiry presented to their notice under the suspicious name of etymology. So long as scholars were engaged in the fruitless task of deriving all languages from the Hebrew,- no real progress was pos- sible. The most striking improvement in linguistic study may be dated from the discovery (for it may properly be called a dis- covery) of the Sanskrit, the ancient language of the northern parts of Hindustan, by our countrymen in the latter part of the last century. The wonderful similarity between the grammatical forms of the Sanskrit, and those of the Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages, was too striking to escape notice, and forced upon the mind the con- viction that there was a far closer and more intimate connexion be- tween them than previous theories could account for. In this way arose the belief of an affinity between languages and a separation of them into certain great groups or families, of which the two most important are the Indo-European and the Semitic. ( It now became / clear that, when two or more languages employ the same words to express the most familar objects and the most simple ideas, — when they possess the same numerals, the same pronouns, the same pre- positions, and the same system of grammatical inflexion,— these languages were originally one and the same, or derived from some common parent.) However far removed from one another the nations may be which now speak them, however different may be their forms of government and religion, it may be asserted, without the possibility of doubt, that they were at some remote period one people, possessing a common language and a common civilization. A few years ago it would have been deemed the height of absurdity to imagine that the English and the Hindus were originally one people, speaking the same language, and clearly distinguished from other families of mankind; and yet comparative philology has established this fact by evidence as clear and irresistible as that the earth revolves round the sun. § 2. No languages, however, can be regarded as entirely pure and unmixed. All have, to a greater or to a less extent, received words from other tongues. This has been strikingly the case in English ; and hence it is of great importance to distinguish between those words which it has derived from other tongues and those which it possesses in common with the languages of the same iamily. For example, such words as association, communicate, retrospective, extirpate, detriment, are clearly derived from the Latin, while others, such as astronomy, astrology, geology, have been borrowed directly from the Greek, or formed according to settled analogies. On the other hand, though the English sit is obviously the same word as the Latin sed-eo, the English know as the Latin (g)no-sco, the English mother as the Latin mater, it would be a great mistake to imagine that these English words are derived from the Latin: Lect. I. CLASSIFICATION OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY". 3 the fact being tnat the former are as ancient as the latter. Both sets of words are the common property of one common tongue. They stand in the relation of sisters, not of mother and daughter. They are branches of one common trunk, not offshoots, the one from the other. § 3. A complete classification of the languages of the Indo- European family would be obviously out of place in a course of lectures devoted to the English language. But, in order to show the exact ethnological position of our own language, I shall first briefly mention the six principal branches into which the family may be divided, and will then proceed to examine more particularly the Teutonic branch, to which the English specially belougs.* I. The Indian branch, represented by the Sanskrit, which has now ceased to be spoken, but is the mother of the Hindustani, Ben- gali, Mahratti, and the other numerous dialects of modern India, to which it stands in the same relation as Latin does to the Romance languages. II. The Medo-Persic branch; At the head of this branch stand the Zend, in which the Zendavesta is composed, and the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. Next follow the Pehlevi of the Sassanian dynasty, the Parsi, in which the national poem of Firdusi is written (a.d. 1000), and lastly the modern Persian. III. The Celtic branch, divided into two dialects, the Gaelic and the Cymric : the former comprising the Irish or Erse, the Scottish Gaelic or Highland-Scotch, and the Manx of the Isle of Man ; and the latter, the Welsh, the Cornish (now extinct), and the Armorican of Britanny. IV. The Grceco-Latin branch, comprising the two ancient clas- sical languages, and the so-called Romance languages derived from the Latin, which are six ' in number, namely, the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian, and the Roumansch or Romanese, spoken in the Grisons, in Switzerland. V. The Teutonic branch, which comprises all the different Ger- man and Scandinavian dialects. /VI. The Slavonic branch, divided into three principal classes : — 1. The Lettic, comprising the Lithuanian, the Old Prussian (now extinct), and the Lettish, the language of Kurland and Livonia. 2. The Western Slavonic, comprising the Polish, the Bohemian or Tchechian, spoken in Bohemia, the Slovakian, spoken by the Slovaks in Hungary, and the Wendian, spoken in Lusatia. 3. The Eastern Slavonic, comprising the Old Slavonic, preserved in the transla- * For a more complete classification of the languages of the Indo-European family, the student is referred to Professor Max Miiller's Lectures on tlte Science of Language, p. 169 seq. V t GERMAN AND SCANDINAVIAN. Lect. I. tion of the Bible made by Cyrillus in the ninth century, and its derivate dialect, the Bulgarian ; the Russian, Servian, Croatian, and Slovinian.* § 4. The Teutonic branch of the Indo-European family of languages is divided into two great classes, the German and the Scandinavian : — I. The German is divisible into three principal dialects, the Moeso-Gothic, the Low German, and the High German ; the two latter being so called because the Low German is spoken by the inhabitants of the low or flat country near the shores of the German Ocean, while the High German belongs to the higher, country in the interior. 1. The Mceso- Gothic, the most easterly of all the German dialects, has long ceased to be. spoken, but is preserved in the translation of the Gospels by Dlfilas. This translation, which is the most ancient specimen of the German languages, was made in the fourth century for the use of the Goths, whom the Emperor Valens, in a.d. 376, allowed to cross the Danube and settle in Mcesia. 2. The Low German -comprises the following dialects : — (1.) The Anglo-Saxon, which was cultivated with great success in England as a literary language, and in which the second most ancient speci- mens of the Germanic language are preserved. (2.) The Old Saxon, so called to distinguish it from the Anglo-Saxon in England, for- merly spoken in Westphalia, of which the principal specimen is the ' Heliand ' (Healer or Saviour), a poem of the ninth century. (3.) The Friesian, now confined to a small district in Holland, but once spoken along the greater part of the northern coasts of Ger- many, from the Rhine to the Elbe, of which there are specimens as early as the twelfth century. (4.) The Dutch, the present language of Holland. (5.) The Flemish, spoken in many parts of Belgium. 3. The High-German comprises the Old High-German from the seventh to the eleventh century, the Middle High-German from the twelfth century to the Reformation, and the New High-German, which, since Luther's translation of the Bible, has been the literary language of Germany. II. The Scandinavian branch, of which the most ancient lan- guage is the Old Norse, the language of Norway, represented by the Icelandic, which was carried into Iceland by the Norse colonists in the ninth century, and which continues to be spoken in that island with little alteration. The language of the Eeroe Islands, also peopled by Norse colonists, is closely related to the Icelandic! On the Continent the Old Norse is represented by the Swedish,' * See Notes and Illustrations (A), Cognate Words in the Indo-Euroveun, Family. r Lect. I. RELATIONSHIP OF TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. Danish, and Norwegian, of which the last has now become a mere palois, leaving the Swedish and Danish as the two literary lan- guages. Besides many other peculiarities in the Scandinavian languages, they possess two striking characteristics, which at once distinguish them from every German dialect : — 1. In the German languages the definite article is always a separate word placed before the noun : e.g. Germ., der Konig ; Ang.-Sax., se cyning ; Eng.^ the king. Jn the Scandinavian it is always placed after the noun, and coalesces with it : e.g. Icelandic, konung, king, konunginn, the king ; Danish, mand, man, manden, the man. 2. In the German lan- guages the passive voice is formed by the past participle and the verb substantive : e.g. Germ., ich werde gelieht ; Eng., I am loved. In the Scandinavian there is a separate form for the passive voice, originally ending in sc or st> and afterwards in s : e.g. Icelandic, ek elska, I love ; ek elskast, I am loved. The following table exhibits the relationship of the different Teutonic languages : — ( 1. Mceso-GotAic. 2. Low-German. (i.) Anglo-Saxon. English, (ii.) Old Saxon, (iii.) Friesian. (iv.) Dutch, (v.) Flemish. 3. High-German. (i.) Old High-German. TEUTONIC j (»•) Middle High-German. (iii.) New High-German. 1. Old Scandinavian, represented by (i.) Icelandic, (ii.) Ferroic. \ 2. Modern Scandinavian, represented by (i.) Danish, (ii.) Swedish. V (iii.) Norwegian. § 5. Having thus taken a brief survey of the different languages to which the English is related, I can now enter more fully into -a subject which has excited much discussion in recent times. That the English language is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, and that the latter was brought into England by a people speaking mainly a Low- German dialect, cannot admit of dispute ; but the time when it was (1. German II. Scandinavian- 6 EARLY GERMAN SETTLEMENT IN BRITAIN. Lect. I. introduced, the people who imported it, and the parts of Germany from which they came, are all points which have given rise to much controversy.* Several modem writers have maintained that there were extensive German settlements in Britain longhefore the Anglo-Saxon conquests in the fifth and sixth centuries. Three arguments are mainly relied upon in support of this opinion. In the first place some have even carried hack the existence of a German population in Britain to a time anterior to Cesar's invasion; because Caasar himself says f that the maritime parts of Britain were inhabited by Belgians who had crossed over from Gaul, while he further states in another passage that the Belgians were for the most part sprung from the Germans.J But, positive as this statement seems to be, there are good reasons for believing that the British coast opposite to Gaul was inhabited at the time of the Roman invasion by a people of Celtic and not of German origin.§ The second argument in favour of an early German settlement in Britain is drawn from the names of some tribes in the British Islands, supposed to be German, which occur in the Geography of Ptolemy, who wrote in the second century of our era. || The third and favourite argument is drawn from a statement in the ' Notitia Utriusque Imperii.' In this important docu- ment, which should probably be placed between the years 305 and 4.07,11 there is mentioned among the officers of state in Britain a count of the Saxon shore (Comes Littoris Saxonici per Britannias), whose government extended from the neighbourhood of the present Portsmouth to the Wash. It is therefore supposed that the Saxons had permanently settled along the south-eastern coast of the island, and that, as the " Littus Saxonicum on the mainland was that district in which members of the Saxon confederacy were settled, the Littus Saxonicum per Britannias unquestionably obtained its name from a * Among the many writers upon these controverted questions the student may consult with advantage : — Lappenberg, History of England, translated by Thorpe ; Kemble, The Saxons in England ; Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth ; Latham, The English Language ; Guest, On the early English Settlements in South Britain, published in the ' Memoirs of the Archaeological Institute,' 1849 ; Davies, On the Maces of Lancashire as indi- cated by the Local Names and the Dialect of the County, published in the ' Transactions of the Philological Society' for 1855 ; and Donaldson, On Eng- lish Ethnography, published in the ' Cambridge Essays ' for 1856. -T Bell. Gall. v. 12. j lb. ii. 4. § This question is discussed in Notes and Illustrations to Lecture II. (A), On the Early Inhabitants of Great Britain. || This subject is examined in Notes and Illustrations 'B), On Certain Names in the Geography of Ptolemy. U Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. xvii. note 72. Leut. I. ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST. 7 similar circumstance."* But, in reply to these confident assertions, it may be stated, first, that the Saxons were not settled on the mainland till a later period ; and secondly, that there are no philological reasons for rejecting the ordinary interpretation of the term as signi- fying the coast exposed to the ravages of the Saxon pirates. Dr, Guest has directed attention to the fact that the Saxon shore of Britain is called in another passage of the ' Notitia ' the Saxon Frontier (Limes) ; and he has well observed that " the Welsh marches in Britain and the Scotch marches in Northumberland were so called, not because they were inhabited by Welshmen and Scotch- men, but because they were open to the incursions of these two races, and even provided with a regular military organization for the purpose of repelling then incursions. For precisely similar reasons the south-eastern coast was called the Saxon Frontier."! There seems, therefore, no evidence in favour of the modem theory that any considerable body of Germans was settled in Britain at an earlier period than the fifth century. It has been urged that among the military colonists there were many of German origin, and this was doubtless the case ; but such colonists must have been all Romanized to a greater or a less extent ; they must have spoken the Latin language ; they did not constitute a separate people, speaking a German dialect, and must soon have been merged in the general mass of the population. § 6. The celebrated invasion of Hengist and Horsa, in the year 450,{ which used to be regarded as the commencement of the German settlements in Britain, has been rejected by the most eminent modern historians as a purely fabulous story. Sir Francis Palgrave, Lappenberg, and Mr. Kemble, have endea- voured to prove the mythical character of the whole narrative ; Dr. Latham has re-echoed their objections, and believes them "to be understated rather than overstated ;" and Mr. Macaulay has given them the sanction of his authority .§ With the exception of Dr. Guest, whose opinion, however, on all subjects connected with our early history is entitled to the greatest weight, it seems to be the almost unanimous verdict of modern historians that the commonly-received * Kemble, The Saxons in England, i. p. 14. t Guest, in Memoirs of the Archaeological Institute for 1849, p. 34. t The date usually given on the authority of Bede*is 449 ; hut as he himself tells us that the invasion took place in the first year of the Emperor Marcian, the true date must be 450, since this emperor ascended the throne in the latter year. See Clinton, Fasti Somani, vol. i. p. 638. § "Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern and Rowena, Arthur and Mordred, are mythical persons, whose very existence may be questioned, and whose adventures must be classed with those of Romulus and Remus." — History of England, vol. i. p. 6. 8 AUTHORITIES FOE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST. Lect. I. history of our country, from the withdrawal of the Romans to the introduction of Christianity in the year 597, is quite worthless, and that this period ought to be regarded as a perfect blank in. our annals. The full examination of this question belongs more properly to a general history of England than to a special treatise on the language ; but it has such an important bearing upon the latter subject, that it cannot be passed over in the present course without a few remarks. The arguments urged against the truth of the com- monly received account are, first, that it is unsupported by any writers who lived sufficiently near the period to make their testimony of any value ; and secondly, that the common story bears all the traces of a poetical or fabulous origin, and contains numerous details which appear in the traditions of other German races. § 7. The three chief authorities for the Saxon conquest of Britain are Gildas, Bede, and the Saxon Chronicle. Gildas was born only seventy years after the landing of Hengist and Horsa. He was a Welsh ecclesiastic, who described the miseries of his countrymen in two short Latin treatises. His ' History ' was written in his fifty- fourth year, which corresponds to a.d. 564 ; his ' Epistle ' some twelve or fourteen years earlier. He was a man of learning, and an eye-witness of the ruin of his countrymen ; and there is no reason for doubting his truthfulness. His 'History' is very brief ; but his narrative' of the introduction of the Saxons into Britain is entirely in accordance with the accounts of Bede and the Saxon Chronicle. Bede was born in the year 673, consequently more than 200 years after the first Saxon invasion. He was a native of the north of England, where he resided all his life ; but he carefully collected materials for his work, as he himself tells us, from the ecclesiastics in different parts of the country. The Saxon Chronicle in its present shape was written shortly before the year 900, or at the close of Alfred's reign ; but there is every reason to believe that it was composed from earlier documents. It would be most important to determine the value and to fix the date of these earlier records ; but this appears impossible, though we may conclude that, at least from the time of the introduction of Christianity, a record was kept of contemporary events, and that the history of the Saxon conquest was committed to writing about this time. § 8. The existence of contemporary documents of the time of the Conquest cannot be proved ; and it therefore becomes an interesting subject of inquiry, for how long a period an accurate record of events is likely to be perpetuated by memory alone. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who has investigated this subject with his usual care, has fixed this period at about a hundred years, and adds I.EOT. I. EXAMINATION OF EVIDENCES. 9 that special circumstances may give to certain events a longer hold on the popular memory.* If we apply this canon to our own history, it cannot admit of doubt that such an event as the conquest of England by the Saxons would be tenaciously pre- served in the memory of the conquering race for more than a century. The grand outlines of the story, such as the names of the tribes which embarked in this bold enterprize, the designations of their leaders, their first arrival upon the foreign shore, and their most striking victories, must have dwelt in the recollections of the sons and grandsons of the first conquerors. It seems to be assumed by Mr. Kemble and those of his school, that, because we have no contemporary documents, the narrative must be fabulous ; but such writers would do well to ponder the remarks of so cautious an inquirer as Sir George G. Lewis, who observes, that " nobody asserts that all history must be taken directly from the reports of percipient witnesses. No historian applies the strict rule of judicial evidence that all hearsay reports are to be discarded. In treating of tne period which precedes contemporary history, all persons admit traditionary, secondary, or hearsay evidence, up to a certain point : the question is, where that point ought to be fixed ."f From the invasion of Hengist and Horsa (a.d. 450) to the intro- duction of Christianity into England (a.d. 597), when it is admitted that a real history commences, is a period of about 150 years, which is not too ,long for the transmission by oral tradition of so striking a national event. There may be, and probably are, errors in some details ; but there is no sufficient reason for doubting that the main facts have been faithfully handed down and are substantially correct. We are not, however, compelled to rely exclusively upon an oral tradition for 150 years. The invasion of the Saxons at about the period mentioned by Bede is recorded by Gildas, who, as we have already seen, was born only seventy years after the event, and between whose account and the traditionary one preserved by Bede, and in the Saxon Chronicle, there is no discrepancy. Thus the most important event is confirmed by an independent witness, whose Welsh origin and ecclesiastical profession would have pre- vented him from having any respect for the traditions of the oppressors of his race and the persecutors of his faith. § 9. In reference to the internal objection, that the common * "We may assume that the Romans, at the beginning of the Second Punic War, would have preserved an oral tradition, correct in its general substance, though erroneous in many single facts, for a period reaching back for nearly 150 years." — An Inquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History, vol. i. p. 100. t lb., vol. ii. p. 492. 10 SETTLEMENTS OF JUTLS, SAXONS, AND ANGLES. Leot. L story bears all the traces of a poetical or fabulous origin, it should be observed, that the critics have not distinguished between the narratives of Bede and the Saxon Chronicle and the wonderful tales contained in Jeffrey of Monmouth. It is true, that most of the stories related by the latter writer have found their way into the common English histories ; but every one who has paid the slightest attention to the sources of English history is well aware that the so-called ' History ' of Jeffrey of Monmouth is an impudent fabrica- tion of the fourteenth century, and gives no faithful exhibition even of the traditions of the Saxon conquerors. The narrative in Bede and the Saxon Chronicle, on the other hand, is simple and straight- forward, and forms a striking contrast to the mythical adventures of Hercules and Theseus, and the marvellous stories of Romulus and Remus.* It is not denied that there are fabulous tales in Bede and the Chronicle ; but they do not form an integral part of the narrative, like the legends in the first book of Livy. For, while on the one hand it is impossible to condemn too strongly the old rationalizing process, which attempted to distil a true history out of the Grecian and Roman fables, simply by omitting everything supernatural and improbable, yet, on the other hand, it is equally uncritical to reject an entire narrative obviously founded upon real events, simply because some fabulous circumstances have grown round it, or been added to it by the credulity of subsequent writers. § 10. Assuming, then, the ordinary history of the Anglo-Saxon conquests to be substantially correct, we may distinguish between the settlements of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. There were several distinct invasions, and it was only by slow degrees and by constant fighting that the German tribes gained a firm footing in the island. I. The Jutes. This people, led by Hengist and Horsa, landed at Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, in 450, and established the kingdom of Kent. They subsequently obtained possession of the Isle of "Wight and of part of Hampshire. They were assisted by Angles and Saxons ; but the leading tribe in this invasion was that of the Jutes. II. The. Saxons or Sexe. There were three distinct settlements of Saxons. The first Saxon kingdom, established by Ella in 477, was that of the South Saxons (South-Sexe), or Bus-sex. The second, established by Cerdic in 495, was that of the West Saxons or Wes- * It is impossible to form a correct judgment upon the subject.without reading the account in Bede and the Chronicle, which is accordingly printed at length in Notes and Illustrations (C). Dr. Guest nas shown how groundless and fanciful is the supposition of Lappenberg, adopted by Kemble, that all the dates of the leaning events are calculated upon a mythical number 8, and its multiples. Lect. I. ORIGIN OF THE SAXONS. U sex, of which the original seat wrb Hampshire, bat which afterwards extended over Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Gloster, and the adjoining counties. The third, established about 530, was that of the East Saxons, or Essex, but which also included Middle-sex (the Middle Saxons), and the southern part of Hertfordshire. III. The Angles or Engle. There were four Anglian kingdoms, but only two distinct invasions of the Angles are recorded. The first invasion took place in the reign of Cerdic, King of Wessex, and ended in the establishment of the kingdom of East Anylia, containing Suffolk (South-folk), Norfolk (North-folk), Cambridgeshire, and parts of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. The second invasion was made in 547, under Ida, who founded the kingdom cf Bemicia, in the south-western counties between the Tweed and the Forth. The successive conquests of the Angles established two other kingdoms, — Deira, lying between the Tweed and the Humber, and comprising the northern counties of England ; and Mercia, com- prehending the midland counties. It would thus appear that, with the exception of the small settle- ments of the Jutes in Kent, the Isle of Wight, and a part of Hamp- shire, the Saxons had possession of the south of England, including the counties on both banks of the Thames, and that the Angles peopled the eastern, northern, and central parts of the island. § 11. It is important to determine who these Jutes, Saxons, and Angles were, from what parts of the Continent they came, and whether they spoke the same language or different dialects. With respect to the Jutes it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion ; but this is of no great importance, since they occupied only a small extent of England, and became merged at an early period in the surrounding Saxons. But with regard to the Saxons and the Angles the case is different ; and we may, therefore, dis- miss all inquiry into the subject of the Jutes, till we have investi- gated the origin and affinities of the two more important tribes. The Saxons* are not mentioned by Tacitus, nor by any of the * The name of this people is usually derived from their characteristic weapon, the sahs or sax, which they carried. Nennius (c. 48) makes Hengist say to his followers, " Nimed eure saxes," — " Take your weapons." (Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstamme, p. 150.) But Dr. Donaldson objects (Cambridge Essays, p. 44), with considerable force, that the case of the Franks leads to the converse inference, that the weapon got its name from the people who used it ; for the battle-axe of the Franks was called a franka or frankiska, and we know that the term frank or wank, " fierce," was a designa- tion of the people themselves. Dr. Donaldson maintains the old opinion, that the name of Saxons is connected with that of the Sacss. Dr. Guest, however, supposes that the " word Sexe meant nothing more than Seamen, and that it was first given to such of the Engle as made piracy their trade " (English Bhythms, 12 ORIGIN OF THE ANGLES. Lect. I. earlier Greek or Boman writers. They first occur in the lists of Ptolemy, who places them upon the narrow neck of the Cimhric Ghersonesus, between the Elbe and the Chalusus, the modern Trawe, a district corresponding to the southern part of the modern Holstein.* Ptolemy also mentions three Saxon islands opposite the mouth of the Elbe,t which are probably Nordstrand, Fbhr, and Silt. But this contracted territory, as Gibbon has remarked, was incapable of pouring forth the inexhaustible swarms of Saxons who reigned over the ocean, who filled the south of Britain with their language, their laws, and their colonies, and who so long defended the liberty of the North against the arms of Charlemagne.J It would be foreign to our present object to pursue the fortunes of the Saxons ; but it can hardly admit of doubt that their power was gradually extended westward along the northern coast of Germany, and that their name was given to a confederacy of various warlike tribes. Among the most powerful members of this confederation were the Friesians, whose name is now confined to one of the provinces of Holland, but who were formerly spread over a much wider area. The Friesian dialects are still spoken, not only in the province of Friesland, but in parts of Hanover, in the island of Heligoland, and upon a portion of the coast of Sleswick, opposite the North Sea. Hence it would appear that the Friesians occupied the very sites where the Saxons are placed by other authorities ; and it is not only certain that they took part in the Saxon invasion of England, but there are very strong reasons for believing that they must have constituted a very large number of the invading forces, since they have left permanent traces of their dialect in our own language.§ § 12. The Angles, or Engle,|| are first mentioned by Tacitus.H under the name of Angli, among the obscure tribes of the Suevic race. They are placed by Ptolemy** on the banks of the Elbe, and apparently near the lower Saale, about as far down the Elbe as the Ohre, in the neighbourhood of the High-German race. They subsequently migrated north of the Elbe to the Cimbric ii. p. 190); but of this there is no proof. See note on p. 15. It seems im- possible to decide with any certainty upon the etymology of the name. * ii. 11, §§ 11, 13. f »• 11. § 31. X Decline and Fall, vol. iii. p. 263. § For proofs of this statement, see Notes and Illustrations (D). | "The name '.Angle' is derived by Bede from the nook, 'angulus,' in which our forefathers lived on the Continent. Angel, in Anglo-Saxon, means a hook, and in the Gothic languages it seems to have meant anything that ended in a point ; angel, a hook, or sting, an car of corn, &c. The Angli of Tacitus as is well known, lived at the point where the coast of the Baltic bends sud- denly to the northward." — Guest, in Transactions of Philological Society, vol. i. p. 106. % Germania, c. 40. ** ii. 11, § 15. I-bci. I. ORIGIN OF THE JUTES. 13 Chersonesus, where the district they inhabited was called Angela or Angul, from which they sailed to the conquest of Britain. This is expressly stated by Bede,* who places their territory called Angulus between that of the Saxons and the Jutes, and by Alfred, who says, " On the west of the Old Saxons is the mouth of the river Elbe and Friesland, and then north-west is the land which is called Angle and Sealand, and some part of the Danes."f The modern district of Angeln lies between the Slie and the Flensburger Fiord ; and though this district was probably included in the ancient Angeln, yet the latter must have been of much wider extent. "We learn from the testimony of Ethelwerd, in the "thirteenth century, that Shswick was the chief city of Anglia, and that this was the Saxon name of the city which was called Haithaby by the Danes.J It would, therefore, appear that the Angles first dwelt in the neighbourhood of High-German tribes, and afterwards in that of the Scandinavians ; and that their language was affected by the dialects of those races with whom they were thus brought into contact. There can be no doubt that the basis of their language was Low German j but there are some words and a few grammatical forms in the northern dialect of England which approximate more closely to the High German than to the Low, and these may fairly be referred to the influence of the High German upon the language of the Angles. Thus the plural termination en of verbs in the Lancashire dialect (we lov-en) is indi- cative of the High-German type. The corresponding termination of the Anglo-Saxon is ath (lufiath, we love), which is the Old-Friesian form.§ Several Scandinavian names and words used in the northern counties are supposed by some writers to be of Anglian origin ; but whether they were introduced by the Danes, or by the Angles, will be a matter for future consideration when I come to speak of the Danish element in our language. § 13. The Jutes have left no distinctive traces in the English language, and it is therefore difficult to determine their affinities. Their name appears in several different forms : in many of the MSS. of Bede the form Vitce occurs instead of Jutae, and in Alfred we find Of &eatum.\\ The latter form of the name might suggest a connexion with the Goths and this seems to be con- * Hist. Eccl. i. 15. f Translation of Orosius, p. 20. See also p. 25. t " Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Sleswio nuncupatur, secundum vero Danos Haithaby." Quoted by Zeuss, Die Beutschen, &c, p. 496. § Davies, ut supra, p. 259, who also quotes several local names and provincial words in the Lancashire dialect, which belong to the High-German forms. H Zeuss, Die Beutschen, &c, p. 500. 14 ORIGIN OF THE TERM ENGLISH. Lect. I. firmed by the statement of Asser.* Even the name Jutes may be merely another form of Goths. It has been objected that Jutland is now inhabited by Danes, while we know that the Goths were Germans ; but to this it is sufficient to reply, that the lower part of the Cimbric Chersonesus is still peopled by a German race, and that it is very probable that their possessions extended further north in earlier times. In the second century of the Christian era the Goths were established towards the mouth of the Vistula ; t and according to their own tradition they originally came from Sweden, where a large territory still bears the name of Gothland.^ There is no diffi- culty in believing that a portion of this migratory race may have settled in the peninsula of Jutland ; and the fusion of their language with that of the Saxons is easily accounted for by the fact of their both speaking dialects of the Low-German type.§ § 14. || The origin of the appellation English, as the exclusive designation of a tongue employed by the Saxon, as well as the Anglian colonists of our fatherland, is not altogether clear. The native Celtic inhabitants, who were compelled to retire before the martial prowess of the strangers, gave to their conquerors the appellation of Saxons, the name by which they are called by the Celts down to the present day. How, then, did England become the exclusive appellation of the country, English of the language 1 We- have no evidence whatever of the application of any general or col- lective name to the people, the country, or the speech, before the introduction of Christianity into England. The new inhabitants of the island became first known to the Roman See through Anglian captives who were carried to Rome in the sixth century. The name of their tribe, in its Latinized form, A n g 1 i , we may suppose was bestowed by the Romans upon the whole people, and the derivative, A n g 1 i a , upon the territory it occupied. The Christian mission- aries who commenced the conversion of Britain would naturally continue to employ the name by which the island had become known anew to them, and their converts, especially if no general name had been already adopted, would assume that which their teachers brought with them. This appears the most probable reason that can now be assigned, why a people, who, in large pro- * " Ortus enim erat de Gothis et Jutis." — De Eehus Gestis Alfredi, p. 469, in Monum. Hist. Brit. p. 469. t Ptol. iii. 5, § 20. j Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. i. p. 375 seq. § The Moeso-Gothic, though usually distinguished from the Low German and High German, approximates much more closely to the former than to the latter. || The remainder of the chapter forms the substance of Mr. Marsh's second lecture. Lect. I. ORIGIN OF THE TERM ENGLISH. 15 portion, retained for themselves and their several provinces the appellation of Saxon, and who were known to neighbouring nations by no other name, should have surrendered this hereditary designation, and given to their language the name of English, to their country that of England, or the land of the Angles.* The language itself, in the earliest existing remains of the native literature, whether composed in Latin or in the vernacular, is generally called English, but sometimes Saxon, These remains are all of later date than the adoption of Christianity by the English people, and, of course, however prevalent the use of English as a national appellative may be in them, nothing can he thence inferred as to the extent to which the term was applied at earlier periods. The compound term, Anglo-Saxon, first occurs in the Life of Alfred, ascribed to his contemporary, Asser, who calls that prince Angul- Saxonum Rex, Tsing of the Anglo-Saxons. The employment of the word as a designation of the language and literature is much more recent, f There is no good reason for rejecting the term Anglo-Saxon, and, as has been proposed, employing English as the name of the language, from the earliest date to the present day. A change of nomenclature like this would expose us to the inconvenience, not merely of embracing, within one designation, objects which have been conventionally separated, but of confounding things logically distinct ; for though our modern English is built upon and mainly derived from the Anglo-Saxon, the two dialects are now so discre- pant, that the fullest knowledge of one would not alone suffice to render the other intelligible to either the eye or the ear. They are * Another theory has been proposed by Dr. Guest, which has been adopted by Dr. Craik (History of English Literature and the English Language, vol. i. p. 29). According to these writers, the Saxons were only a section of the Angles, and consequently the latter name was always recognized among both Angles and Saxons as the proper national appellation. But of this there is no proof; and the fact that the united people were always called Saxons by the aboriginal Celtic population would seem to show that the Saxons predo- minated. f The pretended formal imposition of the name of England upon the Anglo- Saxon possessions in Great Britain, by a decree of King Egbert, is unsupported by any contemporaneous or credible testimony. It is rejected as fabulous by most historical investigators, and it is certainly very improbable that a king, himself a Saxon by birth and name, ruling Saxon subjects and Saxon provinces, should have voluntarily chosen for his realm a designation borrowed from another people and another territory. The title of Anglise or Anglorum rex is much more naturally explained by the supposition that England and English had been already adopted as the collective names of the country and its inhabitants. It is important to bear in mind that the term Anglo-Saxons is meant to designate the Saxons of England as distinguished from the Saxons of the Con< tinent. It does not signify the Angles and Saxons. 1 g ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. LbCT. I. too unlike in vocabulary and in inflexional character to be still considered as one speech, though in syntactical structure they resemble each other more closely than almost any other pair of related ancient and modern tongues. § 15. It has been already shown that the Anglo-SaxoD conquerors consisted of several tribes. The border land of the Scandinavian and Teutonic races, whence the Anglo-Saxon ■ invader emigrated, has always been remarkable for the number of its local dialects. The Friesian, which bears a closer resemblance than any other linguistic group to the English, differs so much in different localities, that the dialects of Friesian parishes, separated only by a narrow arm of the sea, are often quite unintelligible to the inhabitants of each other.* Moreover the Anglo-Saxon language itself supplies internal evidence that there was a great commingling of nations in the invaders of our island. This language, in its obscure etymo- logy, its confused and imperfect inflexions, and its anomalous and irregular syntax, appears to me to furnish abundant proof of a diversity, not of a unity, of origin. It has not what is considered the distinctive character of a modem, so much as of a mixed and ill-assimilated speech, and its relations to the various ingredients of which it is composed are just those of the present English to its own heterogeneous sources. It borrowed roots, and dropped endings, appropriated syntactical combinations without the inflexions which made them logical, and had not yet acquired a consistent and harmonious structure when the Norman conquest arrested its development, and imposed upon it, or, perhaps we should say, gave a new stimulus to, the tendencies which have resulted in the formation of modern English. There is no proof that Anglo-Saxon was ever spoken anywhere but on the soil of Great Britain ; for the ' Heliand,' and other remains of old Saxon, are not Anglo-Saxon, and I think it must be regarded, not as a language which the colonists, or any of them, brought with them from the Continent, but as a new speech resulting from the fusion of many separate elements. It is, therefore, indigenous, if not aboriginal, and as exclusively local and national in its character as English itself. § 16. In the want of more extensive means than the press has yet made accessible for the study of the dialects of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries — the transition period — we cannot assign any precise date to the change from Anglo-Saxon to English ; nor, indeed, is there any reason to suppose that any such sudden revolution occurred in the English speech as to render it hereafter possible to make anything more than an approximative and somewhat arbitrary * On the vast number of Friesian dialects, see Notes and Illustrations (E). Leot. I. OLD, MIDDLE, AND, MODERN ENGLISH. 17 determination of the period. For the purposes of an introductory course, no nice distinctions on this point are necessary, and it will suffice to say that the dialect of the period between the middle of the twelfth and the middle of the thirteenth centuries partakes so Strongly of the characteristics of both Anglo-Saxon and English, that it has been usually, and not inappropriately, called Semi-Saxon. § 17. It is a matter of still greater difficulty to refer the subsequent history of English to fixed chronological epochs. The name of Old English has been applied to the language as spoken from the latter date to the end of the reign of Edward III. in 1377 ; that of Middle English to the form of speech extending from the close of Edward's reign to the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, while all its subse- quent phases are embraced under the common designation of Modern English. This is, in many respects, an objectionable division of our philological history. The Old-English era would include many of the works of Chaucer, which belong properly to a later stage of our literature, and at the same time exclude the English Bible of Wycliffe and his fellow-labourers, whose style is more archaic than that of Chaucer. Middle English would embrace the ' Confessio Amantis ' of Gower, who, philologically, is older than Chaucer, and the entire works of Hooker, as well as many of the plays of Shakespeare, both of whom belong unequivocally to the Modern-English period. It would, I think, be more accurate to commence the second era about the year 1350, and to terminate it with the third quarter of the sixteenth century. § 18. The first marked and specific change in the English language took place in the time, and in a very considerable degree by the in- fluence, of Wycliffe, Gower, and Chaucer, the period of whose lives extended through the last three quarters of the fourteenth century, and included the brilliant reign of Edward III., and the glorious history of the Black Prince. The works of Wycliffe and his school, including their translations of the Bible, which are known to have been widely circulated, undoubtedly exerted a very important in- fluence on the prose, and especially the spoken dialect. " The moral • Gower," as Chaucer calls him, was inferior in ability to his two great contemporaries, and his literary influence less marked ; but his con- tributions to the improvement of his native tongue are of some im- portance ; and if it is true, as Fuller quaintly remarks, that he " left English very bad," it is also true, as Fuller further observes, that he found it " very very bad." The great poetical merit of Chaucer, the popular character of his subjects, and his own high social position, gave him an ascendency in the rising literature of England that scarcely any subsequent writer has attained ; and there is perhaps no English author who has done more to mould, or rather to fix, the standard of the language, and to develope its poetical capabilities, ENG. LAN. C 13 PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS. Lect. I than this great genius.* from this period to the introduction of printing by Caxton, and the consequent diffusion of classical litera- ture in England, about the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, the language remained nearly stationary ; but at that period a revolution commenced, which was promoted by the Reformation, and, for a hundred years, English was in a state of transition. At the close of the period to which I have proposed to apply the name Middle-English, or about the year 1575, that revo- lution had produced its first great and most striking effect upon the structure and vocabulary of our tongue, and thus rendered possible the composition of such writings as those of the great theologian and the great dramatist, which signalized the commencement of the last and greatest eTa of our literature. English now became fixed in grammar and vocabulary, so far as a thing essentially so fleeting as speech can ever be said to be fixed, and for nearly three centuries it has undergone no very important change. Our orthography has indeed become more uniform, and our stock of words has been much enlarged, but he that is well read in Spenser, Hooker, and Shake- speare, not to speak of other great luminaries of that age, and above all, of the standard translation of the Bible, which, however, appro- priately belongs to an earlier period, will doubt whether it has gained much in power to expand the intellect or touch the heart, f § 19. Besides the words which express the general subject of the present course, I must here notice certain other terms of art, and apologize for an occasional looseness in the use of them, which the poverty of the English grammatical nomenclature renders almost unavoidable. Our word language has no conjugate adjective, and, for want of a native term, English scholars have long employed the Greek derivative, philological, in a corresponding sense. But philology, and its derivative adjective, have acquired, in the vocabulary of Continental science, a different meaning from that which we give them, more comprehensive in one direction, more limited in another, and, to supply the want which a restriction of their earlier sense has * See Lectures V., VI., and VII. t " I take this present period of our English tung to be the verie height thereof, bycause I find it so excellently well fined both for the bodie of the tung itself, and for the customarie writing thereof, as either foren workmanship can giue it glosse, or as home-wrought hanling can giue it grace. When the age of our people which now vse the tung so well, is dead and departed, there will another succede, and with the people the tung will alter and change ; which change in the full haruest thereof maie prove comparable to this, but sure for this which we now vse, it seemeth euen now to be at the best for substance, and the brauest for circumstance, and whatsoever shall become of the English state, the English tung cannot prove fairer than it is at this daie, if it maie please our learned sort so to esteme of it, and to bestow their tranell upon such a subject."— Mdlcasteb, First JPart.oJ the Element arie, p. 159 (A.D. 1582V Lect. I. PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS. 19 created, linguistic, or linguistics, a term Latin in its radical, Greek in its form, has been introduced. Philology was originally applied in Germany to the study of the classical languages and literature of Greece and Rome, as a means of general intellectual culture. In its present use, it is defined as a " historical science, whose end is the knowledge of the intellectual condition, labours, and products of a nation, or of cognate nations, at particular epochs of general chrono- logy, with reference to the historical development of such nations."* There are, then, not one, namely, a Greek and Eoman, but many philologies, as many, indeed, as there are distinct peoples, or families of peoples, whose intellectual characters and action may he known through their languages. In philology thus considered, the study of languages is a means to the end specified in the definition just given. In linguistics, on the other hand, language itself, as one of the great characteristics of humanity, is the end, and the means are the study of general and comparative grammar. Every philology is the phy- siology of a species in language ; linguistics, the comparative anatomy of all the several systems of articulate communication between man and man. Linguistics, as a noun, has hardly become an English word. Philology, as used by most English writers, embraces the signification of the two words by which, in Continental literature, the- study of language is characterized, according to $ie methods by which, and the objects for which, it is pursued. The adjectives, philological and linguistic, are employed, sometimes interchangeably in the same sense as philology, and sometimes as adjectives conjugate in meaning to the noun language. I shall not attempt, in this course, » strict conformity to Continental usage in the employment of these words, nor, indeed, would it be practicable to do so, until a new adjective shall be coined to relieve one of them of its double meaning ; but I shall endeavour so to use them all, that the context or the subject matter will determine the sense which they are in- tended to bear for the occasion, f From the distinction here pointed out, it results that philology concerns itself chiefly with that which is peculiar to a given speech and its literature, linguistics with those laws and properties which are common to all languages. Philology is conversant with dis- * Heyse, Sprachwissenschaft, fF. 17. f Our English grammatical and philological vocahulary is poor. We have no adjective strictly conjugate to speech, tongue, language, verb, noun, and many other terms of art in this department. Linguistic is a barbarous hybrid, and, in our use, equivocal, as are also the adjectives verbal, nominal, and the like. A native equivalent to the spr'achlich of some German writers, corresponding nearly to our old use of philological, as in the phrase, sprachliche Forsch- ungen, where the adjective embraces the meaning both of philological and linguistic, is much wanted. 20 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lect. I. tinctions ; linguistics with analogies. The course of lectures I am commencing is intended to be strictly philological, and I shall intro- duce illustrations from the field of linguistics only when they are necessary for etymological reasons, or to make the distinguishing traits of English more palpable by the force of contrast. NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. A. Cognate Words in the Indo- European Family. (See p. 2. J The connexion of English with the other branches of the Indo-European family will bo rendered more evident by a short list of words than by any detailed description. The words selected as examples denote relationship — tho most common objects of nature and art, a few of tho sim- plest verbal roots, and some of the numerals and personal pronouns, all of which by their very nature are the least likely to have been derived from any other language. It must bo understood that the following words are selected only as specimens, and that the list might easily be extended to very manj pages. The English words given below are also found in all the German and Scandinavian dialects. Tho Zend and the Persian forms are so closely allied to the Sanskrit that it is unnecessary to give examples from these languages. In the columns devoted to the Slavonic languages, Jtuss. stands for Russian, Lith. for Lithuanian, Lett, for Lettish, 0. Fr. for Old Prussian, 0. SI, for Old Slavonic In the Celtic list Er. stands for Erse, and W. for Welsh. Words denoting Relationship. English. Sanskrit. Greek and Latin. Slavonic. Celtic Father Mother . . Brother , . Sister.. .. Daughter .. pitrl .. .. matrl . . bhrfttrl . . swasrl duhltri . . "•' >i'h>, pater . . , Mrfpt mater $pd.ri}fi, frater . . soror . . Bvyd.rt}p bat, 0. SI mater, Rues. .. brat', Russ sestra, Russ. dukter, Lith. . . atbalr, Er. mathalr, Er. brathalr, Er. slur, Er. dear, Er. English. Sanskrit. Greek and Latin. Parts of the Body. Eye* . Brow . Tuotk. bbrfl. . da i. La . nokha.t "'Hill:! b-ibpvs 6-oous, 6-fioVr-os, dena, dent-is . unguis . . . akls, Lith. browl, 0. SI. dantls, 0. SI. nagas, Ltth. • A softened form of Anglo-Saxon edge, and Gorman Auge, brat, Er. dend, Er., dantjW, Leot. I. COGNATE WORDS IN INDO-EUBOPEAN. 21 Objects of Nature and Art. Sanskrit. Greek and Latin. Sun .. Moon or Month Star .. Earth.. Water, . Day* .. Night , . Door .. heli . niasa . tara . dharE . uda . dyu . nisa . dwar . »Jaios, sol . . . . /j. i)i/, mensis.. . , a-onjp, stella terra. . . vSup, ndus, unda . Slost diu, dies. .. nox, noct-ls . . dupa, fores . . solustS, Ross, mienu, Lith. voda, Russ. . diena,Lith. . notch', Russ. dwer, 0. SI. . . * A softened form of Anglo-Saxon dtsg. haul, W. mios, Er. seren, W. daiar, dhaiar, W. dour, Er. di, dia,Er.;dydh, W. n8s, W.; ncchd, Er, dor, W. ; dorus, Er, Verbal Boots. Eaglish. Greek and Latin. To Imow , . To wit (i.e. to know, whence wis-dom) . To lick Tote .. To yoke To stand To bear Jna vid lih bhu yi-yvio-o-Kbi, (g)no-eco . olSa, orig. FiSa, video , zna, 0. SI. vid, 0. SI. Xetx^i li(n)go Av j a-sl . . . . ig \ as-ti . . . . _. ( s-mas. . .. £ 1 s-tha ,, .. 5J | B-anti.. .. Ity-tfl .. .. \cfiuj eo'-o'C ecr-n ec-ju.es . . . . eu-Te f (o-)-4vTt \ \ e«rt j * 's-um es es-t 's-umua . . es-tis es-ml es-sl es-tl es-te (same as singular). I-m. "is. "is-t. si-yum. si-yuth. 6-lnd B. On Certain supposed German Names in Gbeat Britain, mentioned by Ptolemy. (See p. 6.) Ptolemy, in his list of tribes in tlie south-east of Ireland, mentions the Cauci (KavKoi, ii. 2, $ 9), who are con- jectured to be the same as the German Chauci (Kemble, Tfie Saxons in England, i. p. 9) ; but the names of the surround- ing tribes, such as Manapii and Bri- gantes, are indisputably Celtic, and an isolated instance of similarity of name, which, may be purely accidental or the mistake of a copyist, is of little or no value, and cannot for one moment be accepted as the proof of an important historical fact. The Coritavi (Kopirauoi, Ptolemy, ii. 3, 20), who appear in Ptolemy as inhabitants of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and some of the neigh- bouring counties, are identified with the Coraniaid of the "Welsh traditions, who came from the country of Pwyl, and settled about the river Humber. Some modern writers (Lappenberg, i. p. 15; Kemble's Saxons, i. p. 9) call Pwyl a Teu- tonic marsh-land, and others interpret it to mean Poland (Davies, in Transact, of Philol. Soc. for 1855, pp. 215, 217) ; Mr. Davies identifies the Coraniaid with the Carini, whom Pliny {H. N. iv. 14, s. 28, $ 99) mentions as a subdivision of the "Vandili along with the Burgundiones, Varini, Gutones, and other tribes inha- biting the north-east of Germany. But these are mere guesses, unsupported by any external evidence. "We know neither who the Coraniaid were, nor from what quarter they came ; and it would be most unsafe to draw any historical conclu- sions from such uncertain premises. C. The Account op the Anglo-Saxon Conquest in Bede and the Saxon Chronicle. {See p. 10.) The words of Bede are : — • " Those who came to Britain were of the three most powerful nations of Ger- many, namely, Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent and of the Isle of "Wight, and those also in the province of the "West-Saxons, who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight. From the Saxons, that is, the country which is now called Old Saxony, came the East - Saxons, the South-Saxons, and the West-Saxons. From the Angles, that is' the country which is called Angulus, and which is said to remain desert from that time to the present day, between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, are de- scended the East-Angles, the Midland- Angles, all the race of the Northum- brians, that is, of those nations that dwell on the north side of the river Humber, and the other nations of the Angles. Their first two leaders are said to have been Hengist and Horsa, of whom Horsa, being afterwards slain in battle by the Britons, was buried in the eastern parts of Kent, where a mo- nument, bearing his name, is still in existence." The Saxon Chroniele runs as follows : "a.d. 449. This year Martinianus and Valentinianus succeeded to the em- pire, and reigned seven years. And in their days Hengist and Horsa, invited by Wyrtgeorne, king of the Britons, landed in Britain on the shore which is called Ypwinesfieet ; at first in aid of Lbct. I. FRIESIANS AND SAXONS. 23 the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them. King Wyrtgeorne gave them land in the south-east of this country, on condition that they should fight against the Picts. Then they fought against the Picts, and had the victory wheresoever thoy came. They then sent to the Angles, desired a larger force to he sent, and caused them to he told the worthlessness of the Britons, and the excellencies of the land. Then they sent hither a larger force in aid of the others. At that time there came men from three tribes of Germany : from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes. ' * From the Jutes came the Kentishmen and the men of Wight, that is, the race which now dwells in "Wight, and that race among the "West-Saxons which is still called the race of Jutes. From the Old Saxons came the East-Saxons, and the South-Saxons, and the "West-Saxons. From Anglia, which has ever since re- mained waste, between the Jutes and Saxons, came the East-Angles, Middle- Angles, Mercians, and all the Northum- brians." D. Connexion Between Friesians and Saxons. (See p. 12.) The close connexion between the Friesians and the Saxons will appear from the following considerations : — - I. Procopius says that Britain was inhabited in his time (the sixth century) by three races — the Angles, Friesians, and Britons * — a statement which can be accounted for only on the supposi- tion that the Friesians and Saxons were convertible terms. Thus Bede speaks only of Saxons, and Procopius only of Friesians, both meaning to indicate the same people. II. The Friesian and Flemish tradi- tions bear testimony to the fact that their ancestors took part in the invasion of England. They even claimed Hengist as their ancestor, who was banished from their country. Thus Maerlant, a Dutch or Flemish poet of the thirteenth century, says : — Een Met JSngistus, een Vriese, een Sas, Die uten lande verdreven was. * bvofioLTa. Se KetTat rots' £9vetn toutois ay.UiW(J.ot Bpi'rrwre?. — Bell. Oo0t.tv.2O, quoted hy Zeus?- • Die DeuWchcn,' Ac,, d. 49s, " A Saxon or Friesian, who Hengist bight, From out of this land was banished quite." Hence it would appear that in Maerlant's time the terms Saxon and Friesian were synonymous. The identity of these terms is also shown by some old Ger- man verses quoted by Verstegan : — Die ne tier Sassen hieten nu Friesen. " The lower Saxons are now called Friesians." And again : Oude boeken hoorde ic gewagen Dat al het lant beneden lYuemagen, Wylen neder Sassen Met. " Old books I have heard affirm, That all the land below Nymegen "Was once called Lower Saxon." III. Many English words are more closely allied to those of the Old Frie- sian than to those of any other German dialect. This will be seen from the following list of words, taken from Richtofen'a AltfHesisch.es W&rterbueh ; — OLD FRIESIC. GERMAN. ENGLISH. hervst,N.Fries. harvst .. herbst .. .. harvest, barkia .. .. hbren, horchen hark, halt . . . lahm . . . . bait half . . . . halb . . . . half, liors . . . ross, pferd . . horse, renda . . . . reissen . . . . rend. nda reiten .. .. ride. soDg, sang . . gesang . . . . song, strote . . . , strasse . . . . street, thenne . . . . dann . . . . then. there . . . . da there. thiaf, tief . . dieb . . . . thief, this, dis . . . . dieser . . . . this. wfd weit . . . . wide. wff weib .. ..wife. wane . . . . sich verringern wane, warand . . . . gewahre . . . . warrant, werka . . . . arbeiten . . . . work. wet nass . . . . wet. weter, water . . wasser . . . . water, fridom . . . . freiheit . . . . freedom, field . . . . feld field. Saterdi . . . . Saterdag(prov.) Saturday, sella, N. Fries. selle . . . verkaufen . . sell, sltta . . . . sltzen . . . . sit. IV. The following grammatical formB in English are also closely allied to tho Friesic. The modern English Bign of the infi- nitive mood, to, is found in Old Friesian alone of all the German dialects. Tho prefix to in Old English literature, in 24 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Lrcc'T. I. the sense of "thoroughly," "utterly," I corresponding to the German zer, as m to-breken (to break in pieces), to-rende j (to tear up), &c, in Piers Ploughman's Vision, is found in the Old-Friesian to breka, to rende, &c. The Old-English participial form yclept has also a parallel in the Old-Friesian emakad (made), erent (rent). From these instances we may infer that the Old Friesian repre- sents the pure Saxon of the Anglo- Saxon tongue ; and we may conclude in general that the Saxons and Friesians were so closely connected, that these names were given at different times to the same people. (The above remarks are taken from a paper by Mr. Davies, in the Transactions of the Philological Society for 1855, pp. 248, 284.) E. The Feiesian Dialects. (See p. 16.) The vast number of local Friesian dialects mentioned in the text is well illustrated by the following remarks from Kohl's Travels : " The commonest things, which are named almost alike all over Europe, receive quite different names in the different Friesian islands. Thus, in Ararum, father is called Aatf ; on the Halligs, Baba or Babe; in Sylt, Foder or Vaar ; in many districts on the main land, Tate ; in the eastern part of FiJhr, Oti or Ahitj. Athough these people live within a couple of (German) miles from each other, these words differ more than pe~re, pater, padre. Voter, and father used for the same purpose by the French, Latins, Italians, Germans, and English, who are separated by hundreds of leagues. "We find among the Frie- sians not only primitive German words, but what may be called common Euro- pean radicals, which different localities seem to have distributed among them. " Even the names of their districts and islands are totally different in dif- ferent dialects. For instance, the island called by the Friesians who speak High. German, Sylt, is called by the inhabitants 881, in FBhr Sol, and in Amrum Sal. " The people of Amrum call the Frie- sians Frash, with the vowel short ; in the southern districts, the word is Freeshe, with, a long vowel ; elsewhere it is pronounced Fraasehe." It is important to observe in con- nexion with the origin of the English. language, that both High-German and Scandinavian forma are found in the Friesian dialects. In the earliest speci- mens of Friesian literature, which go back at least as far as the 12th century, the language approaches very nearly the old High German, as we learn from Grimm (German Grammar, 1st ed. f vol. i. p. lxviii. ; quoted by Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 170). Many words are found in the Old Friesian which have been retained only by the Icelandic or Old NorBe. Mr. Marsh observes that some forms in Friesian, which, German philologists bring forward as proofs of a Germanic origin, may be explained by the Scandina- vian also. He takes as an example " the argument from the frequent termination of the names of places in u m, as Hus- u m and others, which is said to be in all caseB a contraction of h e i m. Now there are, in unequivocally Scandinavian districts, local names ending in u m, which in these instances are taken from the dative plural of the original appellation of the locality. Thus, in Old Norse, Upsal was a plural, tlp- p s a 1 i r ; at or in Upsal, a or l V p- p s 3 1 u m. In speaking of towns, we use in English, most frequently the ob- jective with the prepositions at or in, and in like manner in Old Norse, the dative, as a or f, Husum, would occur oftener than any other case of the name of that town. "When the inflexions were dying out, as, in the confused mix- ture of races in Schleswig-Holstein and its borders, they did very early, the case oftenest in use would survive all others, and become the indeclinable name of the town, just as, in Danish and English, Holum is the only form for all the cases of the Icelandic H o 1 a r , the name of a place in northern Iceland, remark- able as having long possessed the only printing press in the island. In the case of H Q s u m , the dative plural, which would mean at the houses or at the village, is a much, more probable etymology than Htlshjem, (Haus- heim,) which would be pleonastic. These instances in the modern Scandina- vian dialects are precisely analogous to the formation of Stanchio from « tqv Kw, and other similar names in modern Greek, the accusative in that language supplying the place of the dative, which, is obsolete. " In Old Norse it was very common to use the dative in naming a place, in Lect. I. "LANGUAGE," "LYDEN/- AND "COSPEL." 25 constructions where the idiom of other languages would require the nominative. Thus, instead of saying, * That estate was called Steinn,' it was more usual to employ the dative ; sfi. beer h £ t & Steini) * That estate was called, at Steinn.' So, [iar er heitir i Jtt- pum, 'at a place called Jtipar* In Vatnsdala Saga, k. 16, we have, a H rut as t bIS um h.&t\> fit er Hrfiti hid, * it was called at ITrutasta%ar t where Hruti lived ;' in the Saga of Finn- bogi frinn rami, k. 3, hannbio" ]?ar sem heitir at Toptum, ' he lived where it is called at Toptar;' in Magnusar go"35a Saga, k. 52, b j 6 . . (jar sem & Stokkum heitir, maor . . er h6t|>rdndr, * there lived, where it is called at Stokkar, a man who hight Thrand.' Such examples might be mul- tiplied by hundreds." In a communication to the Editor, Mr. Marsh observes that he finds in Haupt's Zeitschrift, xii. 282, a citation of an instrument, from Kemble, Cod. Dip. Mv, Sax. No. 353, from which it would ap- pear that in the tenth century the Anglo- Saxons used the dative of the names of places, as in Icelandic. " Quandam telluris particnlam in loco quern solicole at Hamme vocitant." " The names of the two brothers, Hen- gist and Horsa, who are said to have headed the most eventful incursion of the invaders, are words in one or another form common to all the Scandinavian and the Teutonic dialects. Both are names of the genus horse, but in most localities hengst is appropriated to the male, while in some, and particularly in Schleswig, horsa or hois is con- fined to the female animal. J. G. Kohl informs us that both the proper names are still current in the district from which the ancient conquerors are re- ported to have emigrated. A Danish colonel told the traveller that in a com- pany of his regiment there were two privates hearing these names ; and it happened, oddly, that in this case Hen- gist and Horsa, like Castor and Pollux, were still inseparably united, the places of the two soldiers being side by side in the ranks. {Inseln u. Marschen Schlesw.- Kolst. i. 290 )"— Marsh. F. Anglo-Saxon Wonns for L * n - gdaoe, and the etymology op Ltden and Gospel. " It need hardly be remarked that the word language is derived, through the French, from the Latin lingua, the tongue, a name very commonly applied to speech, because the tongue, from ica relative bulk, its flexibility, and the greater power of the voluntary muscles over it, is the most conspicuous, if not the most important, organ concerned in the production of articulate sounds. The Anglo-Saxons had several words for language, as gereord, ge]?eode, lyden, reord, spell, spasc, sprsec, Jieodisc, tunge. Some of these cannot be traced back to any more radical form ; and we therefore cannot positively say, as we can of the corresponding words in most other tongues, that they are of a figurative character. Lyden is recognizable in our modern English adjective loud, and Chaucer, and other early writers, use leden for language ; s p se c , in speech ; tunge, in tongue ; and spell still subsists in the noun spell, a charm, the verb to spell, and as the last member of gospel. " The two words lyden and gospel re- quire a few words of explanation. There is a confusion between the Saxon lyden (leeden or leden), the Old English leden, and the national appellative Latin, a parallel to which is found also in modern Spanish. Lyden (laden or leden) seems to be allied to the Anglo-Saxon hlyd, gehlyd, a sound, and h 1 u d , loud, to the Danish L y d , the Swedish 1 j u d , and the Ger- man L a u t (noun) , and 1 a u t (ad- jective), all involving the same idea ; and probably also to the Icelandic h 1 j 6 $ , a sound, a song, a trumpet ; which latter word also signifies, oddly, the absence of sound, namely, silence. The three Saxon forms of this word are employed also for Latin. Either this is a confusion of meaning arising from similarity of form, or lyden is a derivative of Latin, as the language par excellence, and so not allied to the other Gothic words above cited. In Spanish, especially in the Spanish colonies, an African or Indian who has learned Spanish, and acquired some of the arts of civilization, so as to make him useful as a servant, is called ladino, and Old Castilian was some- 26 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS— « GOSPEL.' Lect. I. times styled Ladino. On the other hand, Latin -was used in Catalan to signify a foreign language generally. Thus in B. D'Esclot, cap. xxxv. : 'vench denant lo rey, e agenollaa a ell, e saludal en son lati;' and cap. xxxviii. : ( e cridaren molt fortement en llur lati;' 'en Bon lati,' and 'en llur lati,' signifying respectively, in his language, in their language, ■which in this case -was Arabic. Latin ■was also very commonly employed in the same sense in Old French and Italian. From this use of the word, muy la- dino came to mean, in Spanish, a great linguist, one knowing many foreign languages. The Old-English latmer, by corruption latimer, an interpreter or dragoman, is of similar derivation. Thus, in Richard Coer de Lion, Weber, ii. 97,— ' Anon stoode up her latymer And aunsweryd Aleyn Trenchemer.' "With respect to goBpel it is not clear whether the first syllable is the name of the Divinity, God, or the ad- jective g 34 DANISH GRAMMATICAL FORMS LeCT, D. occurrence in these districts ; and all surnames ending in son, such as Adamson, Jackson, Johnson, Nelson, Thompson, Stevenson, and others, are of Scandinavian origin, and are quite unknown in the Anglo-Saxon. Mr. Worsaae calls attention to the curious fact that • the name of Johnson, which is one of the most common in England, is also one of the most common in Iceland. § 8. In endeavouring to ascertain the Danish element in the English language, we have to encounter a difficulty at the very outset of our investigation.* It has been already seen that the German invaders consisted of several tribes. Not only may we conclude from analogy that they spoke different dialects, but this is expressly stated by Bede and other authorities. In consequence of the kings of Wessex finally obtaining the supremacy, the dialect of the West-Saxons became the literary language, and is the one in which all the chief Anglo-Saxon works have come down [to us. Of the other dialects, no literary compositions remain, with the exception of the one which was spoken in the kingdom of Northum- bria. In this dialect we find Scandinavian words and grammatical forms ; but as the Danes occupied the very districts which had been formerly peopled by the Anglians, a question arises whether this Scandinavian element is due to the original Anglian population or to the later Danish immigrants. It has been already shown that the Anglians came from those parts of the Cimbric Chersonesus which bordered upon the country of the Danes ; and it is therefore probable that their language may have approximated more closely to the Danish than to those of the other German tribes. Hence Dr. Guest denies altogether the existence of any Danish element in our language ;f but when he argues in favour of his opinion from the absence of "those grammatical forms, which bind the Northern languages into one great family — the r inflexion of the verb, the passive voice, the definite affixes of the substantive, the neuter inflexion of the adjective " — it may be observed that the introduction of such generic differences would have constituted a new language, and could not have assimilated with any of the Anglo-Saxon dialects. Experience teaches that an intrusive element in a lan- guage is confined to the vocabulary and minor grammatical forms ; in England are : " tliorpe, Old-Northern borp, a collection of houses separated from some principal estate, a village ; thwaite, in the old Scandinavian lan- guage pveit, tved, an isolated piece of land ; rises, a promontory ; eg, or ie, an isle ; with (i.e. forest) ; toft, beck, tarn (Scandinavian, tjorn, or tjarn, a small lake, water) ; dale, fell (rocky mountain) ; force (waterfall) ; luxugh, or how (Scand.,htmgr, a hill) ; garth (Scand., garSr, a large farm)." — WOESAAE,p. 67. * On this subject the student may consult with advantage, in addition to the work of Mr. Worsaae, some valuable papers by Mr. Garnett and Mr. Kemble in the second volume of the Proceedings of the Philological Society. f A History of English Mythrns,'vol. ii. p. 201. Leot. II. IK THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 3S aud, consequently, unless the Danish language had triumphed entirely over the Anglo-Saxon, which no one pretends to have happened, we should never expect to find the peculiar forms of Scandinavian grammar, even if our language had been flooded with Danish words. Not only the Danish writer Worsaae, but Mr. Gamett and Mr. Kemble, clearly recognize the existence of the Danish element in English, and more especially in the Northern dialect. But the dispute is, after all, one of little importance ; for it is admitted on all hands that the Northumbrian dialect contains both words and forms approximating more to the Scandinavian than to the German type ; and it is immaterial whether we give to this element in our language the name of Anglian or Danish. Prom an examination of the existing specimens of the North- umbrian dialect, there seems to be no great difficulty in arriv- ing at a satisfactory conclusion. Mr. Gamett and Mr. Kemble have shown that this dialect was originally Anglian, and that its earliest specimens exhibit hardly any Scandinavian traces ; but that, in consequence of the Norse settlers in Northumbria, Danish words and forms were gradually introduced into it, and became prominent and striking in the fourteenth century. If it should appear strange that such words and forms should be so long in finding their way into the language, it must be recollected that this late introduction of a foreign element into a written language is in accordance with analogy, and is to be expected from the nature of the case. In like manner, it was three centuries after the Norman Conquest before a French element found its way into the written English. Writers naturally cling to a ' pre-existing model and to their own tongue; and foreign words spoken by an intrusive population amalgamate very slowly with the national language. We have also the express testimony of writers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centmy to the existence of a strong Danish element in the population and the language of our northern provinces.* This is stated by Giraldus Cambrensis, John of Wallingford, and Higden ; and at an earlier period in the laws of Henry I., England is divided into three parts, Wessex, Mercia, and the province of the Danes.f In the present Northern dialect there are many forms and words of undoubted Scandinavian origin. Thus the apparently ungrammatical forms current in North Yorkshire, 2" is, thou is, he is, are in exact accordance with the present practice of the Danes, who inflect their verb substantive as follows : % * Gamett, in Proceedings of the Philological Society, vol. ii. p. 78. t " Regnum Anglie trifariam dividitur in regno Britannie, in Westscxiam, et Mircenos, et Danorum provinciam." — vi. § 1, quoted by Worsaae, p. 156. I See Mr. Garnett on 'English Dialects, in the Quarterly Review, February, 1836, p. 382. 36 THE LATIN ELEMENT. LbOt. it. Sing. Plw. Jeg er Vi ere, Du er I ere, Han er, De ere. In Yorkshire. I is, We are, Thou is Ye are, He is, They are. In the same manner the Yorkshire forms I thinks, tliou thinks, he thinks, are perfectly analogous to the Danish jeg taenker, du taenker, Turn taenker. Some of the Scandinavian peculiarities have found their way into the current English language. Of these the most important is the verh are, which is entirely unknown to the Anglo- Saxon. The inflexion of the verb substantive in Anglo-Saxon is : Sing. Plur. 1. com, synd, 2. eart, synd, 3. is (ys), synd. Hence, while our language has retained the Anglo-Saxon inflexion of the singular, it has substituted in the plural the Scandinavian ere. Another Scandinavian peculiarity is the use of the preposition of as the sign of the genitive case, which had found its way into the Semi-Saxon in the twelfth century, though unknown to the old Anglo-Saxon.* § 9. III. — The Latin Element. — The most numerous additions to the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, the most important modifications of English syntax, and consequently of the general idiom of our language, have been derived, either mediately or immediately, from the Latin. Even in the pure Anglo-Saxon period several Latin words were introduced into the language, especially on subjects connected with the economy and discipline of the Church ;f but * See Craik's edition of Shakespeare's 'Julius Ca:sar,' p. 121. On the North-Anglian dialect, see Notes and Illustrations (C). t " Thus we find mynster, a minster, from monasterium; portic, a porch, from portcus; cluster, a cloister, from claustrum; munuc, a monk, from raonachus; bisceop, a bishop, from episcopus; arcebisceop, an archbishop, from archiepiscopus ; sanct, a saint, from sanctus; profast, a provost, from praepositus ; pssll, a pall, from pallium ; calic, a chalice, from calix ; candel, a candle, from candela ; psalter, a psalter, from psalterium ; maessa, a mass, from missa ; pistol, an epistle, from epistola ; praedic-ian, to preach, from praedic-are ; profian, to- prove, from prob-are, etc., etc. From the Latin also came the names of foreign animals and plants, as Icon, the lion, from leo ■ camell, the camel, from camelus ; yip, the elephant, from elephas ; fic-beam, drill ; Ital. trt trullaw, to bore 5 " * * , vella. Familiar Terms. asbrl, trick, mischief . . spree ? baldorddus, prating . . balderdash, bwg, hobgoblin bug, bugbear. bygylu, to threaten. . . . bully. cic, foot; clclaw, strike with the foot . . . . kick. enoc, a rap knock. coblyn, a sprite ., .. goblin; cf. Ger. kobold. crwean, to bend ; crwewd, squatting; cwrc, cwr- cwd, id crouch. cwrian, to squat . . , . cower. cwtws, a lot cut (draw cuts). 46 N6TES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lect, IL WELSH. ENGLISH. cwll, separation ; cyllu, separate cull. chwap, smart stroke . . whap. chwcdleua, toprate,gossip twaddle. fug, deception fudge. grymlalu, to murmur . . grumble. gweddu, to yoke, unite, marry .. . . . . wed. gwyal, mark goal. gwylaw, to weep . . woll. herlodes, a Jtoyden . . . . harlot, mcretrix. hoeden, a flirt .. . . hoyden. hvinhf a swine hog. llachiaw, to cudgel . . . . lick. llawd, youth lad. llodes, a girl lass. madredd, pus matter. \nwygl, tepid, sultry . . muggy. nugtaw, to shake . . . . nudge. paneg, penygen, entrails paunch. plciaw, to throw . . ., pitch. poslaw, to interrogate, em- barrass pose, puzzle. pwea, hobgoblin . . . . puck. pwnip, round mass ; dim. pwmpl, knob, &c. . . bump, pimple. ta&g,ajob,piec&-u)or7c . . task. tociaw, to cut short . . dock. toslaw, to jerk, throw . . toss. trlplaw, to stumble . . . . trip ; cf. Fr. tre- bucher. troddi, move forward, progress trudge. C. On the North- Anglian Dialect. " The whole body of our Anglo-Saxon literary monuments, from the eighth century downwards, is reducible to two great divisions, West-Saxon and An- glian. Political events gave a decided preponderance to the former, so that, towards the end of the ninth century, we perceive its influence on the written language in almost every part of Eng- land. It also appears to have acted powerfully upon the spoken dialect of the Western Mercians, who were origin- ally Angles, but who seem to have gra- dually adopted various peculiarities of the West-Saxon speech. The Anglian branch, including the Northumbrian division of it, once boasted of a flourish- ing and extensive literature ; but civil commotions and the ravages of foreign invaders gradually caused the bulk of it to disappear. A few fragments fortu- nately escaped the general wreck. Be- sides the verses uttered by Bede on his death-bed, the inscription on the Huth- well Cross, and the fragment of Caedmon printed in Wanley's Catalogue, we have in the Durham Ritual, published by the Burtees Society, and in the celebrated Gospels, Cott.MS. Nero, P. 4, undoubted specimens of the language of Northum- bria in the tenth century. A portion of the Gloss to the Rushworth Gospels in the Bodleian Library, supposed to have been written in Yorkshire, is in the same dialect. The Glosses to the Psalter, Cott. MS. Tesp. A. 1, also printed by the Surtees Society, though more southern, are of the same generic character, that is to say, Anglian as distinct from West- Saxon,— and, on account of the anti- quity and purity of the language, they are the most valuable monument of the class. Those pieces present a form of language differing in many important points from the West-Saxon, and ap- proximating in some degree to the Old Saxon and the Westphalian dialect of Old German. The dialects descended from this were, in the eleventh century, and perhaps still earlier, distinguished from those of the south and west by the greater simplicity of their grammatical forms; by the preference of simple vowels to diphthongs, and of hard gut- turals to palatals ; by the frequent and eventually almost universal rejection of the formative prefix ge ; and by the recurrence of peculiar words and forms never found in pure West-Saxon. Ano- ther characteristic is the infusion of Scan- dinavian words, of which there are slight traces in monuments of the tenth cen- tury, and strong and unequivocal ones in those of the thirteenth and fourteenth. Some of the above criteria may be verified by a simple and obvious process, namely, a reference to the topographical nomen- clature of our provinces." * One of the most important peculiarities of the dialect of the Durham Gospels and the Ritual is the termination of the infi- nitive mood in a, which is the Scandina- vian form, instead of an, which is the Anglo-Saxon ending. In the Durham Gospels all infinitive moods are inva- riably formed in a and not an, with the single exception of Man, "to be ;" and since in the older Psalter the infinitive moods end in the Anglo-Saxon an, we may fairly ascribe the change found in the Durham Gospels to the influence of the Danish immigrants. Again, we find in the Durham books the Scandinavian peculiarity of prefixing mt or at to the infinitives, as ad eatta, "to chew," a form still retained in the present local * Mr. Gannett, in Quarterly Review fot March, 1848, p. 885. LMct. 11. NORTH-ANGLIAN DIA1ECT. 47 speech, of Westmoreland. In the North- umbrian •works of a later date we find many other Scandinavian forms, such as the particle sum, in the sense of as, Da- nish som : e.g. " ma sum we forgive oure detturs," so as we forgive our debtors.* " Besides these we find, both in ancient and modern times, braid to resemble, Swedish braas ; u han braas pa. sin fader," in Yorkshire, " he braids on his father," i. e. takes after or resembles him ; eldin firing, Dan. eld fire ; force • See Garnett and Kemble in Proceedings of the PAfloJopicol Society, vol, li. pp. ffl seq. 117 t''l- waterfall, Isl. fors ; gar make or cauBe, Isl. gtira; gill ravine, narrow valley, Isl. gil; greet weep, Isl. grata; feet carrion, Dan. kiod flesh ; la-it seek, Dan. , fade ; lathe barn, Dan. lade ; tile little, Dan. lille; with innumerable others, either totally unknown in Anglo-Saxon or found under perfectly distinct forms. It is proper to observe that some of those words and forms are not peculiar to the Northumbrian district, but are also cur- rent in the North-Anglian dialect of the West Biding of Yorkshire, where they were equally introduced by the Danes." ( & ) LECTURE IIL PRACTICAL USES OF ETYMOLOGY. § 1. Philological Studies. § 2. Etymology: English Dictionaries. § 3. Ex- travagance of etymologists. § 4. Etymology of English words : issue, abominable. § 5. Method of etymology : illustration from the Portuguese word saudade. § 6. Uses of etymology : illustration from the English word grain. § 1. In a previous lecture,* the distinction made in recent gramma- tical nomenclature between philology and linguistics was illustrated by comparing the former to the physiology of a single species, the latter to the comparative anatomy of different species. Etymology, or the study of the primitive, derivative, and figurative forms and meanings of words, must of course have different uses, according to the object for which it is pursued. If the aims of the etymological inquirer be philological, and he seek only a more thorough compre- hension and mastery of the vocabulary of his own tongue, the uses in question, though not excluding other collateral advantages, may be said to be of a strictly practical character ; or, in other words, etymo- logy, so studied, tends directly to aid us in the clear understanding and just and forcible employment of the words which compose our own language. If, on the other hand, the scholar's objects be ethno- logical or linguistic, and he investigate the history of words for the purpose of tracing the relations between different races or different languages, and of arriving at those general principles of universal grammar which determine the form and structure of all human speech, his studies are indeed more highly scientific in their scope and method, but they aid him little in the comprehension, and, as experience abundantly shows, scarcely at all in the use, of his maternal tongue. But though I admit that philology is of a less rigorously scientific character than linguistics, I by no means concede to the latter any pre-eminence as a philosophic study, or as requiring higher intellectual endowments for its successful cultivation ; and it cannot be disputed that, as a means of ethical culture, philology, connecting itself, as it does, with the whole mental and physical life of man, illustrating as well the inward thought and feeling as the outward * See p. 19. Lect. III. ETYMOLOGY. 49 action of a nation, has almost as great a superiority over linguistics as history over pure mathematics. Philological studies, when philology was restricted to the cultivation of the languages, literature, history, and archaeology of Greece and Rome, were very commonly called literse humaniores, or, in English, the httmanities ; and it is the conviction of their value as a moral and intellectual discipline which has led scholars almost universally to ascribe the origin of this appellation to a sense of their refining, elevating, and humanising in- fluence. This, however, I think, is an erroneous etymology. They were called literse humaniores, the humanities, hy way of op- position to the literse d i v i n 33 , or divinity, the two studies, philo- logy and theology, then completing the circle of scholastic knowledge, which, at the period of the introduction of the phrase, scarcely included any branch of physical science. But though the etymology is mistaken, its general reception is an evidence of the opinion of the learned as to the worth and importance of the study, and, now that so many modern literatures have attained to an excellence scarcely inferior to that of classic models, their special philologies have even stronger claims upon us than those of ancient lore, because they are not only almost equally valuable as instruments of mental culture, but are more directly connected with the clear intelligence and fit discharge of our highest moral, social, and religious duties. § 2. Etymology is a fundamental branch of all philological and all linguistic study. The word is used in two senses, or rather, the science of etymology has two offices. The one concerns itself with the primitive and derivative forms and significations of words, the other with their grammatical inflexions and modifications ; the ono considers words independently and absolutely, the other in their syn- tactical relations. In discussing the uses of etymology, I shall confine myself to the first of these offices, or that which consists in investi- gating the earliest recognizable shape and meaning of words, and tracing the history of their subsequent changes in form and signifi- cation. A knowledge of etymology, to such an extent as is required for all the general purposes of literature and of life, is attainable by aids within the reach of every man of moderate scholastic training. Our commonest dictionaries give, with tolerable accuracy, the etymo- logies of most of our vocabulary, and where these fail, every library will furnish the means of further investigation. It must be con- fessed, however, that no'English dictionary at all fulfils the requisites either of a truly scientific or of a popular etymologicon. They all attempt too much and too little — too much of comparative, too little of positive etymology. Of course, in a complete thesaurus of any language, the etymology of every word should exhibit both its philology and its linguistics, its domestic history, and its foreign relations, but in a hand-lexicon of any modern tongue this wide ENG. LAN. H bO EXTRAVAGANCE OF ETYMOLOGISTS. Lect. III. range of linguistic research is misplaced, because it necessarily ex- cludes much that is of more immediate importance to the under- standing and the use of the vocabulary. Richardson's, which, however, is faulty in arrangement, and too bulky for convenient use as a, manual, best answers the true idea of an English dictionary, because it follows, more closely than any other, the history of the words it defines.* For the purposes of general use, no foreign roots should be introduced into the etymological part of a dictionary barely because they resemble, and are presumably cognate with, words of our own language. The selection of such should be limited to those from which the English word is known to be derived, and such others as, by their form or their meaning, serve more clearly to explain either its orthography or some of its significations. Whatever is beyond this belongs to the domain of linguistics, comparative grammar, ethnology, to a thesaurus, not a dictionary, and it can find room in this latter only by excluding what, for the purposes of a dietionary, is of greater value. § 3. The extravagance of etymologists has brought the whole study of words into popular discredit ; and though that study is now pursued in much stricter accordance with philosophic method, in- stances of wild conjecture and absurd speculation are still by no means wanting. Menage, formerly often, and now sometimes, cited as an authority in French etymology, and of course with respect to the origin of English words borrowed from the French, is among the boldest of these inquirers. He hesitates not to assign any foreign primitive, no matter how distant the source, as the origin of the French word resembling it ; and when none such offers, he coins a Low-Latin root for the occasion, f In such cases, the detection of the falsehood is difficult, its refutation next to impossible, for in the chaos of monkish and secular writers in that corrupted dialect, who can say what barbarisms may not occur ? Menage is not the only etymolo- gist who has sinned, in this way, for it is one of the safest and easiest of literary frauds. Dr. Johnson thought we were not author- ized to deny that there might be witches because nothing proved their non-existence ; and the same principle may compel us to pause in disputing a plausible etymology, for want of evidence to show that the supposed root does or does not actually exist in a given voca- bulary. The wise old Fuller, whom no lover of wit, truth, beauty, * See Notes and Illustrations (A), On English Dictionaries. t A French epigrammatist says, upon one of Menage's derivations : — A Ipha/w vlent d'equus, sans doute, Mais il faut avouer aussi Qu'en Tenant de Ik Jusqu'icl 11 a bien change sur la route." Lect. Ill, EXTRAVAGANCE OF ETYMOLOGISTS. 61 and goodness can ever tire of reading, says, in reference to an extra- vagant etymology : — " As for those that count the Tatars the offspring of the ten tribes of Israel, which Salmanasar led away captive, because Tatari or Totari signifieth in the Hebrew and Syriack tongue a residue or remnant, learned men have sufficiently confuted it. And surely it seemeth a forced and overstrained deduction to farre-fetch the name of Tartars from a Hebrew word, a language so far distant from them. But no more hereof ; because, perchance, herein the woman's reason hath a masculine truth ; and the Tartarians are called so, because they are [called] so. It may be curious etymologists (let them lose their wages who work in difficult trifles) seek to reap what was never sown, whilst they study to make those words speak reason, which are only voces ad placitum, imposed at pleasure." The theory of Fuller was better than his practice, and he not un- frequently indulged in etymological speculations as absurd as that which he ridicules respecting the Tatars, for he derives compliment, not, as he says others did, "a completione mentis," but "a complete mentiri," because compliments are usually completely mendacious ; and elsewhere he quotes with seeming assent Sir John Harrington's opinion that the Old-English elf and goblin came from the names of the two great political factions of the Em- pire, the Guelphs and Ghibellines. One can hardly believe Eoger Ascham serious in deriving war from warre or werre, the old form of the comparative worse, because war is worse than peace ;* but even this derivation is only less absurd than Blackstone's of parson from persona, persona ecclesise, because the parson personates or represents the church. The most extraordinary word- fanciers we have had in English literature are Murray and Ker. * Allied to this is Spenser's derivation of world : " But when the word woxe old, it woxe warre old (Whereof It hight)." — Faerie Queeue, b. iv. c vlii. s. xxxi. The ingenious author of the excellent little work on English Synonyms, edited by Archbishop Whately, supposes world to be the participle whirled, and says the word was evidently expressive of roundness. The wh in whirl [hv in the corresponding Gothic words) is radical, and would not have been represented in Anglo-Saxon by w, as in woruld, weoruld, world. Besides this, the word world is older than the knowledge of the globular form or the rotation ol the earth among the Gothic tribes. A still more conclusive argument against this etymology is the fact, that the Anglo-Saxon woruld, the Icelandic verolld, did not mean the earth, the physical, but the moral, the human world, the Latin seculum. The Anglo-Saxon' name of the earth "was middan-eard or middan-geard, corresponding to the Moeso-Gothic midjungards. The most probable etymology of world seems to be wer ("cognate with the Latin vir), man, and old, age or time. 62 EXTRAVAGANCE OF ETYMOLOGISTS. ljsct. III. Murray derives all English, in fact all articulate words, from nine primary monosyllables, which are essentially natural to primitive man. The family likeness between the nine is so strong that Murray might, with much convenience and small loss of probability, have reduced them to one, for they all agree in their vowel and final consonant. The catalogue of these surprisingly prolific roots is this : 1, ag, wag, or hwag ; 2, bag, or bwag ; 3, dwag ; 4, cwag ; 5, lag ; 6, mag; 7, nag ; 8, rag; and 9, swag.* Ker is somewhat less am- bitious, but quite as original and. ingenious in his theories. He found the English public simple enough to buy two editions of a work in two volumes, the object of which is to show that a very large pro- portion of our current English proverbs are, not translations or imitations of Dutch ones, bat mere mispronunciations, corruptions of common Dutch phrases and expressions totally different in meaning from that which is ascribed to the proverbs, as we employ them. Thus the proverbial phrase, " He took the bull by the horns," is a corruption of "hii tuck tije bol by die hoorens," which means, " here head calls contrivance in ; " that it is as it ought to be. "As still as a mouse," is, "a Is stille als er me§ hose," as still as one without shoes ; and even the national cry, " Old England for ever ! " is not plain English at all, but Low Dutch for " Hail to your country— evince your zeal for her ! " The general idea is of course too absurd to be met by argument, and the book is of about the same philological value as Swift's ' Medical Consultation,' and other trifles, where the words are Latin in form, but similar in sound to English words of different significa- tion, so that the Latin words is, his, honor, sic, mean, " Is his honour sick ? " The speculations of more recent and more eminent philologists, though certainly made more plausible by his- torical evidence and by apparent analogies, are, sometimes, not less unreasonable.! * [A Dr. Schmidt performs a more amazing feat, for he derives all Greek words from the root e, and all Latin words from the arch-radical hi. Curtius, Griechische Etymologie, p. 13, quoted by Mai Muller, Science of Language, p. 371.— Ed.] f I certainly do not intend to class Dr. Latham with the dreamers to whom I refer in the text, but I must be permitted here to notice what is, at least, an inaccuracy of expression in his etymology of our English word drake. He says 'English Language, 2nd edition, p. 214), " It [drake] is derived from a word with which it has but one letter in common ; viz. the Latin anas, duck." The common name of the duck in the Gothic languages is doubtless allied to anas, and in most of them the same root occurs in forms which contain the con- sonantal elements of the word drake. Two of these elements, the r and k, are signs of the masculine termination. The d is radical, as are also the corresponding mute t in the Latin anas (genitive anat-is), and then which has been dropped from drate, or rather perhaps formed the d by coalescence with the t, as in Lect. III. EXTRAVAGANCE OK ETYMOLOGISTS. 63 Crambe, a character in the Memoirs of Scribleras much given to punning, declares that he was always under the dominion of some particular word, which formed the theme of his puns. Muys, a very late and learned German philologist, who occupies himself with Greek etymology, is, unconsciously no doubt, under the influence of a similar verbal crotchet. The particular word which tyrannises over his researches is the German verb stossen, in English to push. There are several Sanskrit roots possessing this signification, and, according to our author, there are few Greek words not derived from some one of them. His own special favourite among these Sanskrit radicals is d h u, and he finds a probability, amounting very nearly to certainty, that the following words, as well as hundreds of others equally discrepant from the primitive type, are derived from it : Agamemnon, Asia, Athene, ^gyptus, 0<»/xoy, Gallus, Geryon, De- meter, Eidothea, Helle, Enarete, Zephyrus, Hebe, Jocasta, Leda, Polydeuces, Sisyphus. The process by which these derivations are made out is as simple ao possible. Take for instance Gallus. Begin- ning with dhu, spelled d, h, u, if you cut off d, you have hu, whence it is but a step to hva; h va passes readily into ga, and by adding I, you obtain gal, which wants only the inflexional final syllable us, with the reduplication of the I, and your word is finished. After this, we may well say that etymology, like misery, makes us acquainted with strange bedfellows. § 4. In admitting that most English etymological dictionaries point out the origin of the greater part of our vocabulary, I must limit the concession to words derived, as are the great majority of ours, directly from Greek, Latin, French, or Anglo-Saxon roots still to be found in the recorded literature of those languages. "With respect to words which have traditionally descended from the old Gothic store- house, and which do not occur in the existing remains of Anglo- Saxon literature, or which have been borrowed from remoter sources, and especially with respect to the attempts made by lexicographers to trace English words, through the languages I have named, back to still older dialects, and to detect affinities to words belonging to the modern Greek, where vr is pronounced d, and therefore drake ana anas are re- lated si£ being both derived from a common root. Bat to assert that drake is derived from anas is not only a violation of the legitimate rules of etymological deduction, but it involves the historical improbability of affirming that a people as old as the Romans themselves were without a name for one of the commonest and most important game-birds of their climate, until they borrowed one from their foreign invaders. In fact, if either nation received the word from the other, instead of both inheriting it from some common but remote source, the habits of the bird in question, whose birthplace and proper home is in the for North, would render it more probable that the Gothic was the original, the Latin the derivative form. 54 ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS. Lect. III. vocabularies of languages not of the Gothic or Romance stock, I know no English dictionary which is worthy of the smallest confi- dence. Take for example our noun and verb issue. Nothing can be plainer than its origin to one who is content with the simple truth. "We have borrowed it from the obsolete French issir, which, as well as the cognate Italian u s c i r e , is evidently a modern form of the compound Latin infinitive e x - i r e , to go out. A cele- brated lexicographer gives, as related words, the French and Italian forms, but he fails to see that they are derived from the Latin e x i r e , and suggests that they coincide with the Ethiopic w a t s a ! The tendency of this constant search after remote analogies is to lead the inquirer to overlook near and obvious sources of derivation, and to create a perplexity and confusion with regard to the real meaning of words, by connecting them with distant roots slightly similar in form, and, frequently, not at all in signification. There are, in all literatures, numerous instances where words have been corrupted in orthography, and finally changed in meaning, in consequence of the adoption of a mistaken etymology. An example of this is the com- mon adjective abominable, which was once altered in form and meaning by a mistake of this sort, though better scholarship has now restored it to its true orthography, and more nearly to its proper signification. It is evidently regularly formed from the Latin verb abominor, itself derived from ab and omen. Abominable accordingly involves the notion of that which is in a religious sense profane and detestable, or, in a word, of evil omen ; and Milton never uses it, or the conjugate noun abominations, except with reference to devilish, profane, or idolatrous objects. Quite early in English literature some sciolist fancied that the true etymology was a b and homo, and that its proper meaning was repugnant to hu- manity, inhuman. This derivation being accepted, the orthography was changed to ab7iominable, and in old English books it is often used in a sense corresponding to its supposed origin, nor has it even yet fully recovered its appropriate meaning. § 5. We may, in numerous instances, trace back the use of a word to a remote antiquity, and find at the same time that it was em- ployed in many languages between which we are unable to detect any historical or even grammatical relation. When, in such case, any of the foreign derivative or inflexional changes of the root throw light on the form of the corresponding English word, or when its radical meaning serves to explain any of the different senses which we ascribe to our own vocable, and which are not deducibls from its known historical etymology, the fact of the existence of such a word becomes philologically, as well as linguistically, interesting. If, how- ever, the foreign word does not aid us in understanding or employing the corresponding English one, whatever may be its importance in lect. hi. method and uses of etymology. 55 linguistics, it is in English philology, and of course etymology, wholly insignificant. I will borrow an example from languages which I can hardly presume to be familiar to many of my audience, and others from some domestic sources. The Portuguese word, saudade, which expresses an affectionate, regretful longing for a lost or absent beloved object, has been said by Portuguese scholars to be peculiar to their own tongue, and to have no equivalent in any other European speech. A similar word, however, with the same general, and often the same precise, signification, occurs in Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish, in the respective forms s a k n a e divided into a hundred parts ; of these, to make a rough distribution, sixty would be Saxon, thirty would be Latin (including of course the Latin which has come to us through the French), five would be Greek ; we should then have assigned ninety-five parts, leaving the other five, perhaps too large a residue, to be divided among all the other languages from which we have adopted isolated words." This estimate, of course, applies to the total vocabulary, as contained in the completest dictionaries. Sharon Turner gives extracts from fifteen classical English authors, beginning with Shakespeare and ending with Johnson, for the purpose of comparing the proportion of Saxon words used by these authors respectively. These extracts have often been made a basis for estimates of the proportion of English words in actual use derived from foreign sources, hut they are by no means sufficiently extensive to furnish a safe criterion. The extracts consist of only a period or two from each author, and few of them extend beyond a hundred words ; none of them, I believe, beyond a hundred and fifty. The results deduced from them are, as would be naturally supposed, erroneous, but, such as they are, they have been too generally adopted to be passed without notice, and they are given in a note at the foot of the page.f In order to arrive at satisfactory * This general statement must be qualified by the admission that certain grammatical forms adopted in Northern England from the Danish colonists passed into the literary dialect, and finally became established modes of speech in English. (See Lecture II., by the Editor.) t The most convenient and intelligible method of stating the results is by the numerical percentage of words from different sources in the extracts referred to jn the text ; according to these, — Shakespeare uses 85 per cent, of Anglo-Saxon, 15 of other words. Milton j> 81 „ Cowley „ English Bible „ Thomson „ 89 97 85 „ Addison j> 83 „ Spenser Locke 81 „ 80 „ Pope Young Swift 76 „ 79 „ 89 Robertson „ 68 Hume >» 65 Gibbon » 58 „ Johnson » 75 „ 19 11 J) 3 15 >, 17 )> 19 20 24 „ 21 ,, 11 32 J» 35 42 „ 25 A comparison 90 ETYMOLOGICAL PROPORTIONS OF ENGLISH. Lew VI. conclusions on this point, more thorough and extensive research ia necessary. I have subjected much longer extracts from several authors to a critical examination, and the results I am about to state are in all cases founded, not upon average estimates from the comparison of scattered passages, but upon actual enumeration." In writers whose style is nearly uniform, I have endeavoured to select characteristic portions as a basis for computation ; in others, whose range of subject and variety of expression is wide, I have compared their different styles with reference to the effect produced upon them by difference of matter and of purpose. I have been able to examine the total vocabularies only of the ' Ormulum,' the English Bible, Shakespeare, and the poetical works of Milton, because these are the only English books to which I can find complete verbal indexes. In these instances, the comparison of the entire stock of words possessed, and the proportions habitually used by the writers, is full of interest and instruction, and I regret that leisure and means were not afforded for making similar inquiries respecting the vocabularies of a larger number of eminent authors near our own time. In all cases, proper names are excluded from A comparison of these results, derived from single paragraphs containing from sixty or seventy to a hundred and fifty-words, with those which I have deduced from the examination of different passages from the same and other authors, each extending to several thousand words, will show that conclusions based on data so insignificant in amount as those given by Turner, are entitled to no confidence whatever. The extract from Swift contains ninety words, ten of which, or eleven per cent., Turner marks as foreign, leaving eighty-nine per cent, of Anglo- Saxon. Now this is a picked sentence, for in the John Bull, as thoroughly English a performance as any of Swift's works, the foreign words are in the pro- portion of at least fifteen per cent. ; in his History of the Four Last Years of Queen Anne, twenty-eight per cent. ; in his Political Lying, more than thirty per cent. ; and in this latter work, many passages of considerable length may be found, where the words of foreign etymology amount to forty per cent. On the other hand, Ruskin, in his theoretical discussions, often employs twenty-five or even thirty per cent, of Latin derivatives, but in the first six periods of the sixth exercise in his Elements of Drawing, containing one hundred and eight words, all but two, namely, pale and practice, are Anglo-Saxon. My own comparisons, though embracing more than two hundred times the quantity of literary material examined by Turner, are still insufficient in variety and amount to establish any more precise conclusion than the general one stated in a following page, that the authors of the present day use more Anglo-Saxon words, in proportion to the whole number known to educated men, than writers of cor- responding eminence in the last century. * I have made no attempt to determine the etymological proportions of our entire verbal stock, because I believe no dictionary contains more than two- thirds, or at most three-fourths, of the words which make up the English lan- guage. Dictionaries are made from books, and for readers of books, and they all omit a vast array of words, chiefly Saxon, which belong to the aits and to the humbler fields of life, and which have not yet found their way into literary circles. Usct.VI. ETYMOLOGICAL PROPORTIONS OF ENGLISH. 0i the estimates, but in computing the etymological proportions of the words used in the extracts examined, all other words, of whatever grammatical class, and all repetitions of the same words, are counted. Thus* in the passage extending from the end of the period in verse 362 of the sixth book of ' Paradise Lost ' to the end of the period in verse 372, there are seventy-two words. Eight of these are proper names and are rejected, but all the other words are counted, though several of them are repetitions of particles a»d pronouns. In the comparison of the total vocabularies, every part of speech is counted as a distinct word, but all the inflected forms of a given verb or adjective are treated as composing a single word. Thus, safe, safely, safety, and save, I make four words, but save, saved, and saving, one, as also safe, safer, safest, one. I have made no attempt to assign words not of Anglo-Saxon origin to their respective sources, but it may be assumed in general that Greek words, excepting the modern scientific compounds, have come to us through the Latin, and both in this case and where they have been formed directly from Greek roots, their orthography is usually conformed to the Latin standard for similar words. Words of original Latin etymology have been, as will be more fully shown in a future lecture, in the great majority of instances, borrowed by us from the French, and are still used in forms more in accordance with the French than with the Latin orthography. The proportion, five per cent., allowed by Trench to Greek words, I think too great, as is also that for other miscellaneous etymologies, unless we follow the Celtic school in referring to a Celtic origin all roots common tc that and the Gothic dialects. Taking the authors I have examined chronologically, I find, with respect to their total vocabularies, that in that of the ' Ormulum,' which, in opposition to the opinion of most philologists, I consider English rather than semi-Saxon, though written probably not far rom the year 1225, nearly ninety-seven per cent, of the words are Anglo-Saxon.* In the vocabulary of the English Bible, sixty per cent, are native; in that of Shakespeare the proportion is very nearly the same ; while of the stock of words employed in the poetical works of Milton, less than thirty-three per cent, are Anglo-Saxon. * With the exception of a very few Latin terms, such as quadriga, vipera, &c, I have observed in the Ormulum no word of foreign etymology which had not been employed by Anglo-Saxon writers, and thus naturalized, while Anglo- Saxon was still a living speech. There is a considerable class of Saxon words, some of them very important with reference to the question of the moral culture of the people, the source and etymology of which it is difficult to determine. Law and Sight are examples. Seo Notes and Illustrations, My~ moloyy of ' Law ' and ' Might.' 92 EXAMPLES FROM AUTHORS. Lect. VI. § 3. But when we examine the proportions in which authors actually employ the words at their command, we find that, even in those whose total vocabulary embraces the greatest number of Latin and other foreign vocables, the Anglo-Saxon still largely predo- minates. Thus : — Robert of Gloucester, Narrative of Conquest, pp. 354, 364, employs of Anglo-Saxon words 96 per cent. Piers Ploughman, Introduction, entire 88 „ Passus Decimus-Quartus, entile 84 „ Passus Decimus-Nonus and Vicesimus, entire . . 89 „ Creed, entire 94 Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales, first 420 verses* . . . . 88 „ Nonnes Preestes Tale, entire 93 „ Squiers Tale, entire 91 „ Prose Tale of Meliboeus, in about 3000 words . . . . 89 Sir Thomas More, Coronation of Richard III., &c.,f seven folio pages 84 Spenser, Faerie Queene, book ii. canto vii 86 New Testament: — John's Gospel, chaps, i. iv. xvii 96 Matthew, chaps, vii. xvii. xviii 93 Luke, chaps, v. xii. xxiii 92 Romans, chaps, ii. vii. ii. xv 90 * For the purpose of determining more satisfactorily the true character of the diction of Langland and of Chaucer, I have counted Doth the different words of foreign derivation, and the repetitions of them, in the Passus Decimus-Quartus of Piers Ploughman, and in an equal amount of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Exclusive of quotations and proper names, the Passus Decimus-Quartus contains somewhat less than 3200 words. Of these, including repetitions, 500, or sixteen per cent., are of Latin or French origin, and as there are about 180 repetitions, the number of different foreign words is about 320, or ten per cent. In the first 420 verses of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, the number of words is the same, or about 3200, of which, including repetitions, about 370, or rather less than twelve per cent., are Romance. The repetitions are but 70, and there remain 300, or rather more than nine per cent., of different foreign words. In either point of view, then, Chaucer's vocabulary is more purely Anglo-Saxon than that of Langland. It must be remembered, however, that there are few Romance words in Piers Ploughman which are not found in other English writers of as early a date, while Chaucer has many which occur for the first time in his verses, and were doubtless introduced by him. t Ellis (preface to reprint of Hardynge) doubts whether the Life of Richard HI., commonly ascribed to Sir T. More, was really written by him, but Ascham treats it as his, and in the edition of More's works prepared by his nephew, and printed in 1557, the preliminary note to the Life of Richard states expressly that it was composed by Sir Thomas about the year 1513, when he was sheriff of London, and that it is now printed from " a copie of his own hand." The internal evidence is, indeed, with Ellis ; for, in point of style, this work is much superior to any of More's undisputed productions, and in tact, deserves the high praise which Hallam has bestowed upon it. Still, I think there is hardly sufficient ground for denying the authorship to More, and I have selected it as the best example of original Knglish of that period. Lect. VI. PREPONDERANCE OF ANGLO-SAXON WORDS. 93 Shakespeare, Henry IV., part i., act ii 91 per cent. „ Othello, act v 89 „ „ Tempest, act i 88 „ Milton, L' Allegro 90 „ „ II Penseroso 83 „ „ Paradise Lost, book vi 80 ,, Addison, several numbers of Spectator 82 „ Pope, First Epistle, and Essay on Man 80 „ Swift, Political Lying 68, „ ,, John Bull, several chapters 85 „ ,, Four Last Years of Queen Anne, to end of sketch of Lord Cowper 72 ,, Johnson, preface to Dictionary, entire 72 „ Junius, Letters xii. and xxiii 76 „ Hume, History of England, general sketch of Commonwealth, forming conclusion of chap, lx 73 „ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. i. chap, vii 70 ,, Webster, Second Speech on Foot's Resolution, entire* -75 „ Irving, Stout Gentleman 85 „ ,, Westminster Abbey 77 „ Maoaulay, Essay on Lord Bacon 75 „ Channing, Essay on Milton 75 „ Cobbett, on Indian Corn, chap, xi 80 „ Prescott, Philip II., book i. chap, ix 77 „ Bancroft, History, vol. vh\, Battle of Bunker Hill 78 „ Bryant, Death of the Flower 92 „ ,, Thanatopsis 84 „ Mrs. Browning, Cry of the Children 92 „ „ Crowned and Buried 83 „ ,, Lost Bower 77 ,, Robert Browning, Blougram's Apology 84 „ Everett, Eulogy on J. Q. Adams, last twenty pages 76" ,. Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature, Period II., chap, i 73 „ Tennyson, The Lotus Eaters 87 „ „ In Memoriam, first twenty poems 89 „ Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. ii., part, iii., sec. ii., chap. v. Of the Superhuman Ideal 73 „ „ Elements of Drawing, first six exercises 84 „ Longfellow, Miles Standish, entire 87 „ Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life, Third Discourse . . 74 „ § 4. The most interesting result of these comparisons, perhaps the only one which they can be said to establish, is the fact, that the best writers of the present day habitually employ, in both poetry and * The apparently large proportion of words of Latin origin in this great speech, popularly known as the Reply to Hayne, is chiefly due to the frequent recurrence of " Congress," " constitution," and other technical terms of American political law. Wherever it was not necessary to employ these expressions, the style is much more Saxon. Thus, in the eulogy on Massachusetts, containing more than two hundred words, eighty-four per cent, are native, and in the peroration, beginning " God grant," &c., the Anglo-Saxon words are in the proportion of eighty per cent. 94 INCREASING USE OF ANGLO-SAXON. Leot. VI. prose, a larger proportion of Anglo-Saxon words than the hest writers of the last century. This conclusion is not deduced alone from the numerical computations just given, for, in estimating the relative prominence of a particular element in the vocabulary, we must take into view the whole extent of that vocabulary. Now, in this latter particular, there has been a great change since the time of Johnson, for, while the number of Saxon words remains the same, there has been, within a hundred years, a large increase of terms of alien origin. Some older native words, it is true, have been revived, but these are not numerous. On the other hand, scarcely a word that Johnson and his contemporaries would have used has become obsolete, while the necessities of art, science, commerce, and industry, have intro- duced many thousands of Latin, French, and other foreign terms. Hence, with respect to vocabulary, the writers of this generation are naturally, and almost necessarily, in the position in which Milton was exceptionally and artificially. The stock of words they possess contains more Latin than Saxon elements ; the dialect in which they accustom themselves to think and write is, in much the largest pro- portion, home-born English. This recognition of the superior force and fitness of a Saxon phraseology, for all purposes where it can be employed at all, is the most encouraging of existing indications with respect to the tendencies of our mother-tongue, as a medium of literary effort. Had words of Latin and French etymology been proportionally as numerous in the time of Johnson and of Gibbon as they now are, those authors, instead of employing twenty-eight or thirty per cent, of such words, would scarcely have contented themselves with less than fifty. And had either of them attempted the assthetical theories so eloqaently discussed by Ruskin, with the knowledge and the stock of words possessed by that masterly writer, their Saxon would have been confined to particles, pronouns, and auxiliaries, the mere wheel- work of syntactical movement. Johnson thought that " if the terms of natural knowledge were extracted from Bacon ; the phrases of policy, war, and navigation from Ealeigh ; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of English words in which they might be expressed." At present, the works of Bacon hardly furnish terms for the precise enunciation of any one truth of physical science ■ nor would any English writer now think it possible to narrate the history of a political revolution, to discuss the principles of modern government, or of political economy, to detail the events of a cam- paign or a voyage, or to describe a battle, in the words of Raleigh. Besides all this, the diffusion of knowledge, and of material appliances and comforts, has made the dialects of all the sciences more or less a part of the " diction of common life," and therefore we can no longei Lkot. VI. MILTON AND SHAKESPEARE. 95 converse, even on fire-side topics, altogether in the language of Shakespeare. I do not think it at all extravagant to say that the number of authorized English words, the great mass of ■which is understood, if not actually used, by all intelligent persons, is larger, by at least one-fifth, than it was in the middle of the eighteenth century, and this great accretion of familiar vocables consists almost wholly of imported terms. Yet if we compare the usual proportion of Anglo-Saxon words employed by good writers of that epoch and of this with the whole vocabularies known to them respectively, we shall find the relative prominence of the Anglo-Saxon much greater in our own time ; for though we know numerically more foreign words, we actually use proportionally fewer in literary composition. § 5. The relation between Milton's entire verbal resources and his habitual economy in the use of them, is most remarkable. Some words of Greek and Latin origin, indeed, such as air, angel, force, glory, grace, just, mortal, move, nature, par&fpeace, &c, occur veiy often, but most of the foreign words employed py him are found in but a single passage, whereas the Saxon words are very many times repeated. Nor is the predominance of such to be ascribed to the number of particles or other small words, for of these Milton is very sparing ; and if we translate almost any period in ' Paradise Lost ' into Latin, we shall find the difference between the number of de- terminative words in the original and the translation by no means large. All this is true, though in a less degree, of Shakespeare ; and as illustrating the infrequency of Latin words, now common, in his works, I may observe that abrupt, ambiguous, artless, congratulate, improbable, improper, improve, impure, inconvenient, incredible, are all aim£ Xryofieva, once used words, wjin the great dramatist. § 6. In comparing the linguistic-'elements which enter into the dialect of literature as employed by different writers, I think the influence of subject and purpose upon the choice of words has not been sufficiently considered. We find that the vocabulary of the same writer varies very much in its etymological ingredients, according to the matter he handles and the aims he proposes to himself. This appears very manifestly from a comparison of the specimens selected for the foregoing computations from the New Testament and from Milton, and not less remarkably in those from Swift, Irving, and Buskin. The following passages from Irving, in which the words of foreign origin are printed in italics, may serve :»s illustrations. From the Stout Gentleman, in ' Bracebridge-Hall :' — " In one corner was a stagnant pool of water surrounding an island * of muck ; there were several half-drowned fowls crowded IsfanS is one of those English words where a mistaken etymology has led gg ADOPTION OF FOREIGN WORDS. Lect. VI. together under a cart, among which was a miserable crestfallen cock, drenched out of all life and spirit; his drooping tail matted, as it were, into a single feather, along which the water trickled from his back ; near the cart was a half-dozing cow, chewing the cud, and standing patiently to he rained on, with wreaths of vapour rising from her reeking hide ; a wall-eyed horse, tired of the loneliness of the stable was poking his spectral head out of a window, with the rain dripping on it from the eaves ; an unhappy cur, chained to a dog-house hard by, uttered something every now and then between a bark and a yelp; a drab of a kitchen-wench trampled backwards and forwards through the yard in pattens, looking as sulky as the weather itself ; every thing, in short, was comfortless and forlorn, excepting a crew of hard-drinking ducks, assembled like boon com- panions round a puddle, and making a riotous noise over their liquor." From Westminster Abbey, in ' The Sketch Book :' — " It was the tomb of a crusader ; of one of those military enthu- siasts, who so strangely mingled religion and romance, and whose exploits form the connecting link between fact and fiction, between the history and the fairy tale. There is something extremely pic- turesque in the tombs of these adventurers, decorated as they are with rude armorial bearings and Gothic sculpture. They comport with the antiquated chapels in which they are generally found ; and in considering them,the imagination is apt to kindle with the legen- dary associations, the romantic fiction, the chivalrous pomp and pageantry which poetry has spread over the wars for the sepulchre of Christ." In the first of these extracts, out of one hundred and eighty-nine words, all but twenty-two are probably native, the proportions being respectively eighty-nine and eleven per cent. ; in the second, consist- ing of one hundred and six words, we find no less than forty aliens, which is proportionally more than three times as many as in the first. § 7. The causes which have led to the adoption of so large a propor- tion of foreign words, and at the same time produced such important to a corrupt orthography. Isle may possibly be the French He, anciently spelt isle, from the Latin insula, but the fact that Robert of Gloucester and other early English writers wrote ile or yle, at a time when the only French orthography was isle, is a strong argument against this derivation. It is more probably a contraction of Hand, the Anglo-Saxon ealand, ealond, igland, and the s was inserted in both, because, when Saxon was forgotten, the words were thought to have come through the French from the Latin insula, in which the s is probably radical. Mr. Klipstein refers the s in island to the genitive in s of the Anglo-Saxon e & or i 6, but this would be an unusual form of composition, and I do not know that e &s land- occurs in Anglo-Saxon. Leot. VI. ANGLO-SAXON AND LATIN. 97 modifications in the signification of many terms originally English, are very various. The most ohvious of these are the early Christiani- zation of the English nation, a circumstance not always sufficiently considered in the study of our linguistic history ; the Norman Con- quest ; the Crusades ; and especially the mechanical industry and commercial enterprise of the British people, the former of which has compelled them to seek both the material for industrial elahoration, and a vent for their manufactures, in the markets of the whole earth ; the latter has made them the common carriers and brokers of the world. "With so many points of external contact, so many conduits for the reception of every species of foreign influence, it would imply a great power of repulsion and resistance in the English tongue if it had not become eminently composite in its substance and in its organization. In fact, it has so completely adapted itself to the uses and wants of Christian society, as exemplified by the Anglo- Saxon race in the highest forms to which associate life has anywhere attained, that it well deserves to be considered the model speech of modem humanity, nearly achieving in language the realization of that great ideal which wise men are everywhere seeking to make the fundamental law of politicial organization, the union of freedom, stability, and progress. § 8. It is a question of much interest how far the different consti- tuents of English have influenced each other, or in other words, how far each class of them has impressed its own formal characteristics upon those derived from a different source. Let us take the recipro- cal influence of the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin. We shall find it a general rule, that where the English word is made up of a Latin root with new terminal syllables, or suffixes, which modify the signification of the word or determine the grammatical class to which it belongs, those syllables are Saxon, while instances of Saxon radicals with Latin terminations are comparatively rare. With respect to prefixes, however, which, with the root, usually constitute compounds, not derivatives, the case is otherwise, and we have generally employed Latin prefixes with Latin roots,* seldom or never Latin prepositions with Saxon roots. We have indeed taken most of our Latin words entire in some derivativo shape, as they were * The Saxon inseparable privative un- is an exception, a majority of our words beginning with this prefix being of Romance origin. At present, we incline to harmonize our etymology by substituting the Latin i n - for the native particle, in words of foreign extraction. For example, incapable is now ex- clusively used for the older wwcapable. Palsgrave in his list of verbs, p. 650, gives us I outcept for / except, but I have net met with this anomalous compound elsewhere, though outtake foi except is very common in Early English. ENQ. LAN. 98 ANGLO-SAXON AND LATIN. Lect. VI. formed and employed by the Latins themselves, or the French after them, and thus the two great classes remain distinct in form, each following its own original law ; hut neverthless, if there is a change, the Latin yields. The Saxon roots with Latin passive terminations are chiefly adjectives like eatable, beara&Ze, readaWe, to a few of which custom has reconciled us ,• but many words of this class em- ployed by old writers, such as doable, are obsolete, and the ear revolts at once at a new application of this ending ; whereas we accept, with- out scruple, Latin and French roots with a Saxon termination.* Motionless, painful, painless, joyixd, joyless, and even ceaseless, almost the only instance of the use of the privative ending with a verbal root, t offend no Englishman's sense of congruity ; nor do we hesitate to extend the process, and to say joyless-ness, and the like. Foreign verbs we conjugate according to the Saxon weak form, but I remember scarcely an instance of the application of the strong conjugation, with the letter-change, to a Romance root.f We compare foreign adjectives after the Saxon fashion, by the addition of the syllables -er and -est, except that recently, in conformity to a rule which has no foundation in good taste or in the practice of the best writers, we have, in poly- * There is a Saxon noun, of rare occurrence, abal, signifying ability, to which this termination might be referred, Did we not find in Icelandic a cor- responding root, abl or afl, which exists in too many forms to be otherwise than indigenous, I should suspect Abal to be itself derived from the Latin ad- jective h a b i 1 i s. The historical evidence is in favour of deriving our adjectival ending in -ble from the Latin -abilis, -ibilis, through the French -able, -ible. In Early English, this termination had by no means a uniformly pas- sive force, and it formerly ended many words where we have now replaced it by -al and -ful. Thus, in Holland's Pliny, medicinoWe is always used instead of medicina?; Fisher, in his 'Sermon had at the Moneth Minde of the noble Prynces Margarete, countesse of Richmonde and Darbye,' has vengeoWe for vengeful, and Hooker (Discourse of Justification) has poweraofc for powerful. Similar forms often occur in Shakespeare. We still say delectable for delightful, but this is going out of use. impeccable, however, maintains its ground among theologians, and comfortable is too strongly rooted to be disturbed. This ending not unfrequently made the adjective a sort of gerundial, and hence " it is considera&fe," in the literature of the seventeenth century, generally meant " it is to be considered." The adjective reliable, in the sense of worthy of confidence, is altogether unidiomatic. The termination in -ible is rather more uncertain in its force than that in -able. Milton's use of visible in Paradise Lost, i. 63, is remarkable. " Darkness visible " is not darkness as itself an object of vision, a mere curtain of black impenetrable cloud, but it is a sable gloom, through which, in spite of its profound obscurity, the fearful things it shrouded were superaaturally " visible." t Gower (Pauli's edition, ii. 211, 214) uses haveless, but I do not know that this word is found elsewhere. Tireless and resistless occur in good writers. X The participial adjective distraught from distract is a case of this sort, and Spenser (Faerie Queene, b. i. c. vi. st. 43) has raile for rolled, the pre- terite of roll, but there is some doubt whether roll is not of Ai_glo-Saxon, or et least Gothic parentage. Lect. VI. FEW SPANISH WORDS IN ENGLISH. JJfl syllables, almost exclusively employed the comparison by more and most. The rule I speak of probably originated in a sense of incon- gruity in the adaptation of the Saxon form of comparison to adjectives borrowed from the French, and ending, as modified by English orthoepy, in -ous. The adjectives with this ending have all two, perhaps most of them three, syllables, and thus a repugnance, which at first belonged only to the termination, was gradually extended to native words resembling the French adjectives in the number of their syllables. Ascham writes inventivest, Bacon honourablest, and Testament printed in the Wycliffite translations, Oxford, 1850. Lect.VII. LANGLAND, GOWER, CHAUCER, WYCLIFFE. 117 the religious reformers moved in different spheres, addressed them- selves to different audiences, and the vocabulary and style of each is modified by the circumstances under which he wrote, and the subject on which he was employed. Gower and Chaucer, writing for ladies and cavaliers, used the phraseology most likely to be intelligible and acceptable to courtiers, while Wycliffe and the author of the ' Plough- man ' were aiming to bring before the popular mind the word of God and the abuses of the Church. The vocabulary of the Keformers, both in prose and verse, is drawn almost wholly from homely Anglo- Saxon and the habitual language of religious life, while the lays of Gower and Chaucer are more freely decorated with the flowers of an exotic and artificial phraseology.* Wycliffe and his associates, in their biblical translations, use few foreign words not transplanted di- rectly from the Latin Vulgate, but in their own original writings they employ as large a proportion of Romance vocables as occurs in those of Chaucer's works where they are most numerous. In the ' Squires Tale,' nine per cent, of the words are of Continental origin, in the ' Nonnes Prestes Tale ' the proportion falls to seven, while in the prose ' Persones Tale,' a religious homily, it rises to eleven. The diction of Chaucer in the ' Persones Tale ' does not differ very essentially from that of other religious writers of the same period, and it is by no means the proportion of foreign words which distinguishes his poems from the common literary dialect of the times. It is the selection of his vocabulary, and the structure of his periods, that mark his style as his own, and it is a curious fact, that of the small number of foreign words employed by him and by Gower, a large share were in a manner forced upon them by the necessities of rhyme ; for while not less than ninety parts in a hundred of their vocabularies are pure Anglo-Saxon, more than one-fourth of the terminal words of their verses are Latin or French. Englishmen have sometimes looked back with regret to the loss of the splendid conquests of Edward III., and the older English pro- vinces on the east and south of the Channel, but there can be little doubt that the surrender of territory was a gain, so far as respects the unity and harmony of national character, the development of the language, and the creation of an independent literature. The first * Notwithstanding the amount of poetical embellishment in Chaucer's works, he actually employs a smaller percentage of Latin and French words than the author of Piers Ploughman, though the general difference in this respect is perhaps less than the computation given in Lecture VI. would indicate. The dialect of Piers Ploughman has been popularly supposed to be more thoroughly Anglo-Saxon than that of Chaucer, because the former uses very many native words not found in the latter, and which are now obsolete ; but in point of fact, Chaucer's style is quite as idiomatic as that of Langland, if tried by either an Anglo-Saxon or a modern English standard. 118 ENGLISH OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Lect. VII. effect of the great victories of that reign, no doubt, was to stimulate the national pride of England, and to clothe everything properly- indigenous with new respectability and value. It is perhaps to this feeling that we are to ascribe the statute of the thirty-sixth year of Edward III., which prescribed that pleas should be pleaded, as well as debated and judged, in English, though they were to be enrolled in Latin. The self-conscious spirit of Anglo-Saxon nationality was for the moment thoroughly roused, but a large proportion of the nobility and gentry were of Norman extraction, and still attached to their here- ditary speech. The statute does not appear to have been much regarded in practice, and French and Latin continued to be the official languages for a long time after. From the Norman Conquest to the twenty- fifth year of Edward I., 1297, all parliamentary enactments were recorded and promulgated in Latin. From that date to the third year of Henry VII., in 1487, they are almost wholly in French, and thereafter only in English, but the records of judicial proceedings were made up in Latin down to a much later date ; and in fact England was never thoroughly Anglicized, until its political connec- tion with the Continent was completely severed. "Had the Plantagenets," observes Macaulay, "as at one time seemed likely, succeeded in uniting all France under their govern- ment, it is probable that England would never have had an inde- pendent existence. The noble language of Milton and Burke would have remained a rustic dialect without a literature, a fixed grammar, or a fixed orthography, and would have been contemptuously abandoned to the boors. No man of English extraction would have risen to eminence, except by becoming in speech and in habits a Frenchman." § 11. Analogous, though certainly not identical, consequences, would have followed from the failure of the Keformers to release England from her allegiance to the Papal See; for the mighty intel- lectual straggle, which shook Christendom in the sixteenth century, had a powerful influence in rousing the English mind to vigorous action, throwing it back on its own resources, and compelling it to bring out whatever of strength and efficiency was inherent in the national mind and the national speech. Tyndale's Testament was, for its time, as important a gift to the English people, as was King James's translation, of which indeed Tyndale's forms the staple, fourscore years later, and in the theological controversies of that century our mother-tongue acquired and put forth a compass of vocabulary, a force and beauty of diction, and a power of precise logical expression, of which scarce any other European tongue was then capable, and which the best English writers of later centuries can hardly be said to have surpassed. Lror. VIL C 119 } NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Comparison of Matthew vii. 27, and Luke vi. 49. (Seep. 115.)' The Greek text (Scholz's), and Tyndale's translation, are given from Bagster's Hexapla, London, 1841; the Mce so- Gothic from Gabelentz and Loebe, the Anglo- Saxon from Klipstein, and Wycliffe from the Wycliflite versions, Oxford, 1850. From Matthew vii. 27. Kat KaTef3r} rj Ppoxj) nal %\$ov ot iroTajUOt, yai eirvevcrav ot avey.oi s teal n-poo-eKOi£ai> 177 oiKi'qi MeiVft, «al «tteo"€* leal fjv t) tttShtis MtEBO-GoTHIO OF UlPHILAS. Jah ati'ddja dalaj> rign jah. qemun awos jah vaivoun vindos jah bistugqun bi jainamma raznajah gadraus jah vas drus 'is mikils. Anglo-Saxon. Tha rlnde hyt, and thaer c<5in flod, and bleowon windas, and ahruron on thaet hus ; and thaet hus feoll, and hys hryre was mycel. "Wycliffe. And rayn came doun, and floodis camen, and wyndis blewen, and thei hurliden in to that hous ; and it felle doun, and the fallyng doun thereof was grete. Ttndale. And abundaunce of rayne descended, and the fluddes came, and the wyndes blewe and beet vpon that housse, and it Tell, and great was the fall of it. Ifrom Luke vi. 49. jj irpoaeppTjiev 6 Trorafibs, koX evBzms zirtae, tuu iyivero to prjyii.0. tjjs oiieiaf iiteCvTfi fidya. Mceso-Gothic OF Ulpuilas. batei bistagq flodus jah suns gadraus, jah varb so usvaltcins bis raznis mikla. Anglo-Saxon. And thaet flod in-fleow, and hraedlice hyt afeoll; and wearth mycel hryre thaes buses. Wycliffe. In to which the flood was hurlid, and a non it felde doun ; and tho fallinge doun of that hous is maad greet. Tyndale. Agaynst which the fludde did bet ; and it fell by and by. And the fall of that housse was gveate. C 120 ) LECTURE VIII. THE VOCABULABY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. § 1 . Losses and gains of English. § 2. Losses in the poetic dialect. § 3. Archaic diction. § 4. Changes in vocabulary. § 5. Changes in meaning of words. § 6. Extent of vocabulary. § 7. Technical terms. § 1. The Anglo-Saxon represents at once the material substratum and the formative principle of the English language. You may eliminate all the other ingredients, and there still subsists a speech, of itself sufficient for all the great purposes of temporal and spiritual life, and capable of such grpwth and development from its own native sources, and by its own inherent strength, as to fit it also for all the factitious wants and new-found conveniences of the most artificial stages of human society. If, on the other hand, you strike out the Saxon element, there remains but a jumble of articulate sounds without coherence, syntactic relation, or intelligible signifi- cance. But though possessed of this inexhaustible mine of native metal, we have rifled the whole orbis verlorum, the world of words, to augment our overflowing stores, so that every speech and nation under heaven has contributed some jewels to enrich our cabinet, or, at the least, some humble implement to facilitate the communication essential to the proper discharge of the duties, and the performance of the labours, of moral and material life. These foreign conquests, indeed, have not been achieved, these foreign treasures won, without some shedding of Saxon blood, some sacrifice of domestic coin, and if we have gained largely in vocabulary, we have, for the time at least, lost no small portion of that original constructive power, whereby we could have fabricated a nomenclature scarcely less wide and diversi- fied than that which we have borrowed from so distant and mul- tiplied sources. English no longer exercises, though we may hope it still possesses, the protean gift of transformation, which could at pleasure verbalize a noun, whether substantive or adjective, and the contrary ; we have dropped the variety of significant endings, which indicated not only the grammatical character, but the grammatical relations, of the words of the period, and with them sacrificed the power of varying the arrangement of the sentence according to the Lbct. VIII. POETIC DIALECT— LOSSES TO ENGLISH. 121 emphasis, so as always to use the right word in the right place ; we have suffered to perish a great multitude of forcible descriptive terms ; and finally, we no longer enjoy the convenience of framing at pleasure new words out of old and familiar material, by known rules of derivation and composition, but are able to increase our vocabulary only by borrowing from foreign and, for the most part, unallied sources. Nevertheless, in the opinion of able judges, our gains, upon the whole, so far at least as the vocabulary is concerned, more than balance our losses. Our language has become more copious, more flexible, more refined, and capable of greater philosophical pre- cision, and a wider variety of expression. The introduction of foreign words and foreign idioms has made English less easy of complete mastery to ourselves, and its mixed character is one reason why, in general, even educated English and Americans speak less well than Continental scholars ; but, on the other hand, the same composite structure renders it less difficult for foreigners, and thus it is eminently fitted to be the speech " f *W" nations, one of which counts among its subjects, the other among its citizens, people of every language and every clime. § 2. Our losses are greatest in the poetic dialect, nor have they, in this department, except for didactic and epic verse, been at all ba- lanced by bur acquisitions from the Latin and the French, or rather from the former through the latter. \We have suffered in the voca- bulary suited to idyllic and to rural poetry, in the language of the do- mestic affections, and the sensibilities of everyday social life.(ln short, while the nomenclature of art has been enriched, the voice of nature has grown thin and poor, and at the same time, in the loss of the soft inflexions of the Saxon grammar, English prosody has sustained an injury which no variety of foreign terminations can compensate. The recovery and restoration of very many half-forgotten and wholly un- supplied Saxon words, and of some of the melodious endings which gave such variety and charm to rhyme, is yet possible, and it is here that I look for ODe of the greatest benefits to our literature from the study of our ancient mother-tongue. Even Chaucer, whom a week's labour will make almost as intelligible as Dryden, might furnish our bards an ample harvest, and a knowledge of the existing remains of Anglo-Saxon literature would enable us to give to our poetic vocabulary and our rhythm a compass and a beauty surpassed by that of no modern tongue. It is remarkable that Ben Jonson, in lamenting the disappearance of the old verbal plural ending -en, as, they loven, they complainen, instead of they love, they complain, a form which he says he " dares not presume to set afoot again, though the lack thereof, well considered, will be found a great blemish to our tongue," should confine the expression of his regret solely to the loss Qf a. grammatical sign, without adverting to the superior rhythmical 12 2 ARCHAIC DICTION. Lbot. VIII. beauty and convenience of the obsolete form. Early English in- herited from the Saxon numerous terminations of case, number, and person, with an obscure vowel or liquid final, constituting trochaic feet, and the loss of these has compelled us to substitute spondaic measures to an extent which singularly interferes with the melody of our versification. Thus in Chaucer's time, the adjectives all, small, and the like, and the preterite of the strong verbs, had a form in e obscure, which served as a sign of the plural. The e final in these and other words was articulated as it now is in French poetry, except / before words beginning with a vowel or with h, and thus what we should write and pronounce, prosaically, — " And small fowls make melody, That sleep all the night with open eye,'' - becomes metrical as written by Chaucer, and pronounced by his con- temporaries :— " And smalS fowles makSn mSlSdie, That slepen al thg night with 6p8n yhe." But this point will be more properly considered in a subsequent part of our course. § 3. It has been observed in all literatures, that the poetry and the prose which take the strongest hold of the heart of a nation are usually somewhat archaic in diction ; behind, rather than in advance of, the fashionable language of the time. The reason of this is that the great mass of every people is slow to adopt changes in its vocabulary. New words are introduced, and long exclusively employed in circles that are rather excrescences upon society than essential constituents of it, while old words cling to the tongue of the stable multitude, and are understood and felt by it long after they have ceased to be current and intelligible among the changeful coteries that assume to dictate the speech as well as the opinions and the manners of their genera- tion. Deep in the recesses of our being, beneath even the reach of consciousness, or at least of objective self-inspection, there lies a certain sensibility to the organic laws of our mother-tongue, and to the primary significance of its vocabulary, which tells us when obso- lete, unfaniiliar words are fitly used, and the logical power of inter- preting words by the context acts with the greatest swiftness and certainty, when it is brought to bear on the material of our native speech. The popular mind shrinks from new words, as from aliens not yet rightfully entitled to a' place in our community, while anti- quated and half-forgotten native vocables, like trusty friends returning after an absence so long that their features are but dimly remembered, are welcomed with double warmth, when once their history and their Leot. VIII. ARCHAIC DICTION. 123 worth are brought back to our recollection. So tenaciously do ancient words and ancient forms adhere to the national mind, that persons o! little culture, but good linguistic perceptions, will not unfrequently follow old English or Scottish authors with greater intelligence than grammarians trained to the exact study of written forms, and I have known self-educated women, who read Chaucer and Burns with a relish and an appreciation rare among persons well schooled in classic lore. Doubtless the too free use of archaisms is an abuse, but the errors which have been committed by modern writers in this way have generally been not so much in employing too large a proportion of older words, as in applying them to new objects, thoughts, and con- ditions. The author of ' Nothing to Wear ' would have committed a serious violation of the laws of propriety and good taste, if he had adopted the dialect of the sixteenth century in that fine satire, to which, what is currently called the local colour of the composition gives so much point. On the other hand, the judicious use of anti- quated words and forms in the ' Castle of Indolence,' an imaginative conception altogether in harmony with the tone of an earlier age, has clothed that exquisite creation with a charm which renders it more attractive than almost any other poetical production of the last century. The English author who has most affected archaism of phraseology is Spenser, but if he had confined himself to the use of roots and in- flexions which ever were true English, instead of coining words and forms to suit his metre and his rhyme, he would have escaped some- thing of the censure which his supposed too conservative loveof the reverend and the old brought upon him, at the close of a period during, which, more than ever after the time of Chaucer, the language had been in a state of metamorphosis and transition.* Ben Jonson sings : " Then it chimes, When the old words do strike on the new times," and he has happily conceived, and happily expressed in prose, the true rule for the selection of words in writings designed for permanence of duration and effect. " We must not," says he, " be too frequent with the mint, every day coining, tor fetch words from the extreme and utmost ages. Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, and are not without their delight sometimes. For they have the authority of years, and out of their intermission do win to themselves a kind of * See Notes and Illustrations (A), Spenser's Language. 124 CHANGES IN MEANING OF WORDS. Leot. VIII. grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past language is best." § 4. To ascertain the number of words in use at any given time, Is a matter of great difficulty. As I have observed in a former lecture, new worda are constantly making their appearance, and of these, while the greater part are forgotten with the occasions which produced them, some, from the great importance and abiding in- fluence of those events, or from their own inherent expressivenjss, become permanent additions to the language. The introduction of new words can scarcely fail to be marked, but the disappearance of old and established expressions is not a thing of so easy observation. The mere non-user of a word is not likely to be noticed until it has been so long out of currency that it strikes us as unfamiliar, when met with in authors of an earlier period. Nor does the fact, that a word is not actually employed at a particular epoch, prove it to be permanently obsolete. " Multa renascentur qua; jam cecideie, cadentque, Qua; nunc sunt in honore vocabula." Words are constantly passing temporarily out of use, and resuming their place in literature agajn, and this occasional suspended anima- tion of words, followed by a revival and restoration to full activity, is one of the most curious facts in their history. But this subject belongs to another part of our course, and we shall resume it here- after. We can never overlook at once our whole contemporaneous literature, and of course we can never say how extensive its active vocabulary is, nor how far its gains, which we see and can estimate, are compensated by losses which escape our notice. Such computa- tions no generation can make for itself, and the balance can be struck only by its successor. § 5. There is one verbal revolution which is more within the scope of familiar observation. I refer to that change by which words once refined, elegant, and even solemn, come to suggest trivial, vul- gar, or ludicrous thoughts or images. Spenser, in speaking of an encounter between two armies or single knights, often says, they " let drive, or, rushed full drive, at each other," and both he and later writers, even to the time of Dryden, describe, in pathetic pas- sages, a lady as having her face " blubbered with tears." The phraso " not to be named the same day," now a vulgarism,.occurs in ' Abel Redivivus ;' and the grave Hooker warns sinners of the danger of " P°PP m g down into the pit." Fellow, originally meaning simply a companion, is now a term of offence. Hooker and Shakespeare use lompanion, now become respectable, as we do fellow, and it is re- markable that in almost all the European languages, the word cor- Lect. VlH. CHANGES IN USE OF WORDS. 125 responding to fellow is employed chiefly in a disparaging significa- tion.* When a distinguished American politician expressed a willingness, under certain circumstances, to " let the Constitution slide," he was criticised almost as severely for the undignified character of the ex- pression, as for the supposed unpatriotic sentiment ; hut he had the authority of Chaucer and Shakespeare for the language, if not for the thought. Young Lord Walter, in the ' Clerkes Tale,' was so devcted to hawking, that " Wei neigh all other cures let he slyde ;" the disconsolate Dorigene in the ' Frankeleines Tale' was fain at last to " Lete hire sorwe slide ;" and Sly, in the ' Taming of the Shrew,' " Lets the world slide." Very many humble colloquialisms current in America, but not now used in England, and generally supposed to be Americanisms, are, after all, of good old British family, and people from the Eastern States, who are sometimes ridiculed for talking of a sight of people, may find comfort in learning that the famous old romance, the prose ' Morte d' Arthur,' uses this word for multitude, and that the high-born dame, Juliana Berners, lady prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell in the fifteenth century, informs us that in her time a bomynable syght of rrumhes was elegant English for " a large company of friars."t § 6. No living language yet possesses a dictionary so complete as to give all the words in use at any one period, still less all those that have belonged to it during the whole extent of its literary history. We cannot therefore arrive at any precise results as to the compara- tive copiousness of our own and other languages, but there is reason to think that the vocabulary of English is among the most extensive now employed by man. The number of English words not yet obsolete, but found in good authors, or in approved usage by correct speakers, including the nomenclature of science and the arts, does not probably fall short of one hundred thousand.? Now there are persons who know this voca- * Party, for person, now an offensive vulgarism, occurs in the Memorials of the Empire of Japan, published by the Hakluyt Society, p. 55, and very fre- quently in Holland, and other authors of his time. " Apelles, not knowing the name of the partie who had brought him thither," &c. &c "but the king presently tooke knowledge thereby of the partie that had played this pranke by him," &c. &c. — Holland, Pliny, ii. 539, E. \ See Notes and Illustrations (B), Supposed Americanisms in Old English. % In this estimate — one hundred thousand — I include technical terms only so far as they have become a part of the general vocabulary of all cultivated per- 126 EXTENT OF VOCABULARY. Leo*. VIII. binary in nearly its whole extent, but they understand a large pro- portion of it much as they are acquainted with Greek or Latin, that is, as the dialect of books, or of special arts or professions, and not as a living speech, the common language of daily and hourly thought. Or, if, like some celebrated orators, living and dead, they are able, upon occasion, to bring into the field in the war of words even the half of this vast array of light and heavy troops, yet they habitually content themselves with a much less imposing display of verbal force, and use for ordinary purposes but a very small proportion of the words they have at their command. Out of our immense maga- zine of words, and their combinations, every man selects his own implements and weapons, and we should find in the verbal repertory of each individual, were it once fairly laid open to us, a key that would unlock many mysteries of his particular humanity, many secrets of his private history. Tew writers or speakers use as many as ten thousand words, ordi- nary persons of fair intelligence not above three or four thousand. If a scholar were to be required to name, without examination, the authors whose English vocabulary was the largest, he would probably specify the all-embracing Shakespeare, and the all-knowing Milton. And yet in all the works of the great dramatist, there occur not more than fifteen thousand words, in the poems of Milton not above eight thousand. The whole number of Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols does not exceed eight hundred, and the entire Italian operatic voca- bulary is said to be scarcely more extensive. To those whose attention has not been turned to the subject, these are surprising facts, but if we run over a few pages of a dictionary, and observe how great a proportion of the words are such as we do not ourselves individually use, we shall be forced to conclude that we each find a very limited vocabulary sufficient for our own pur- poses. Although we have few words absolutely synonymous, yet every important thought, image, and feeling, has numerous allied, if not equivalent forms of expression, and out of these every man appro- priates and almost exclusively employs those which most closely accord with his own mental constitution, his tastes arid opinions, the style of his favourite authors, or which best accommodate them- selves to the rest of his habitual phraseology. One man will say a thankful heart, another a grateful spirit; one usually employs fancy where another would say imagination ; one describes a friend as a person of a sanguine temperament, another speaks of him as a man sons. If we add all the special terms of every science and every art, the num- ber of English words would be far beyond one hundred thousand. [This number seems excessive. Professor Max Muller observes that Richardson and Websto give altogether 43,566 words.— Science of Language, p. 253. — Ed.] Lect. VIII. TECHNICAL TEEMS. 127 of a hopeful spirit ; one regards a winter passage around Cape Horn as a very hazardous voyage, another considers it a peculiarly dan' gerous trip. One man begins to build, another commences building* Men of moderate passions employ few epithets, with verbs and sub- stantives of mild significations ; excitable men use numerous inten- sives, and words of strong and stirring meanings. Loose thinners content themselves with a single expression for a large class of related ideas ; logical men sciarpulously select the precise word which corre- sponds to the thought they utter, and yet among persons of but average intelligence, each understands, though not himself employ- ing, the vocabulary of all the rest. § 7. The demands of pure and of physical science, and of me- chanical art, for a more extended nomenclature, wherewith to chronicle their progress, and aid in their diffusion, are at present giving occasion to a more ample coinage of new words than are sup- plied from any other source. Science, with the exception of Geology, borrows its vocabulary chiefly from Greek and Latin sources ; me- chanical art, to some extent from the same languages, but it has more generally taken its technical terms from native, though often very obscure, roots. The number of words of art which the last half- century has thus introduced into English is very great, and a largo proportion of them are sought for in vain in our most voluminous dictionaries. Indeed, it is surprising how slowly the commonest mechanical terms find their way into dictionaries professedly com- plete. I may mention, as instances of this, that penny, a denomina- tion of the sizes of nails, as a six-penny, or a ten-penny nail, though it was employed by Featly two hundred years ago, and has been in constant use ever since, is not to be found in Webster ;f and the * Commence is used by good writes only as a transitive verb, and as snch requires the participle or participial noun, not the infinitive, after it. The -phrase I commence to build, now occasionally employed, is therefore not sanc- tioned by respectable authority. At the same time, there is no valid gramma- tical objection to its use. The French, from whom we borrowed this verb, say commencer a parler, or commencer de parler, according to circumstances, and our restriction of it to a technically transitive character is purely conventional. f "He fell fierce and foule upon the Pope himselfe, threatning to loosen him from his chayre, though he were fastened thereto with a tewpeny naile." — Life of Abbot, ' Abel Sedivimis,' 546. Six-penny, eight-penny, ten-penny nails, are nails of such sizes, that a thou- sand will weigh six, eight, or ten pounds, and m this phrase, therefore, penny seems to be a corruption of pound. Weidenfeld, Secrets of the A depts, uses penny for duodecimal part : " Of the white likewise, one was to be of ten-penny, another of eleven, another of ster- ling silver," &c. &c. — Address- to Students, 15. Here ten-penny silver is silver ten-twelfths fine. On the expression Pair of Stairs, which is rejected as a vulgar inaccuracy, sec Notes and Illustrations (C;. 128 SCIENTIFIC VO&aBlftARY. Lect. VHf. great French and Italian dictionary of Alberti, in the edition of 1835, does not contain the word for steam-boat in either language. The vocabulary of science is founded upon the necessity, partly of new names for new things, and partly ot more precise and exclusive designation of well-known things. It is obvious that when chemistry discovers a new element or elementary combination, physics a new law or principle, mathematics a new mode of ascertaining magnitudes or comparing quantities, new words must be coined in order properly to express the object discovered, or process invented ; but the need of new terms for familiar things, or properties of things, is not so clear to common apprehension. It is not at first sight evident that a botanist, in describing a smooth, shaggy, or bristly, vegetable surface, is under the necessity of saying instead, that the leaf or stalk is glabrous, hirsute, or hispid, but a sufficient reason for the introduc- tion of new terms into newly-organised branches of knowledge, is to be found in the fact, that the common words of every living speeeh are popularly used in several distinct acceptations, some proper and some figurative. The purposes of natural science require that its nomenclature shall be capable of exact definition, and that every de- scriptive technical term be rigorously limited to the expression of the precise quality or mode of action to the designation of which it is applied. Now, though smooth, shaggy, and bristly, may be, and often are, employed in senses precisely equivalent to those of glabrous, hirsute, and hispid, yet they have also other meanings and shades of meaning, and are almost always more or less vague in their signifi- cation, because, being relative in their nature, they are constantly referred to different standards of comparison. The Latin words which, in the dialect of botany, replace them, have, on the contrary, no signification except that which is imposed upon them by strict definition, and no degree of signification which is not fixed by reference to known and invariable types. In a recent scientific journal, I find this sentence : — " Begoniaceas, by their anthero-connectival fabric, indicate a close relationship with anonaceo-hydrocharideo-nymphaeoid forms, an affinity confirmed by the serpentarioid flexuoso-nodulous stem, the liriodendroid stipules, and cissoid and victorioid foliage of a certain Begonia, and if con- sidered hypogynous, would, in their triquetrous capsule, alate seed, apetalism, and tufted stamination, represent the floral fabric of Ne- penthes, itself of aristolochioid affinity, while, by its pitehered leaves, directly belonging to Sarracenias and Dionseas." This extract exemplifies, in an instructive way, the application of new words to objects and features familiar in themselves, but which have only recently acquired a scientific value, and is interesting as showing to what extent the formation of compound and derivative words may be carried in English, when employed in the service of Lect. VIII. lliCHNICAL TEEMS. 129 natural knowledge. Most of the descriptive epithets are derived from the scientific appellations of known species or genera, the names of which suggest to the hotanist their characteristic forma. Where the particular form is common to two or three, the names of all are grouped in one compound, and the whole word terminated with the Greek syllable -oid, expressive of likeness. The nomenclature of science is often so repugnant to the ear, and so refractory to the tongue of the English race, that it never finds ad- mission into the dialect of common life, but as the principles of abstract reasoning and the facts of natural knowledge become more widely diffused, much of the vocabulary which belonged originally to the schools, escapes from its learned seclusion, and, generally with more or less modification of meaning, finally incorporates itself into the common language, the familiar speech of the people. At present the predominance of scientific pursuits is bestowing upon English a great number of words borrowed from the nomenclature, both of the various branches of natural history, and of the more exact sciences of pure and mixed mathematics. Thus, conditions, in the sense of the circumstances under which a given phenomenon takes place, and which may be supposed to modify its character, problem, corollary, phenomenon, quantitative, and qualitative, demonstrative, positive and negative, the mean between extremes, antipodal, zenith, inverse ratio, and hundreds of other terms lately introduced for the special purposes of science, and denoting new, or at least unfamiliar things and relations of things, have now become a part of the general voca- bulary of all educated persons.* In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the questions which absorbed the thoughts of men, and shook the dynasties pf Europe, were not those immediately affecting material interests, but those concerning the relations of man to his Maker, and of the subject to his rulers. Theology and civil polity, and, as a necessary prepara- tion for the comprehension of both, metaphysical studies, were the almost exclusive pursuit of the great thinkers, the active intellects of that long period. The facts, the arguments, the authorities which bore upon these questions, were principally to be sought for in the ancient languages, and when the reasoning was to be employed to influence the unlearned, to be clothed in an English dress, and to be popularized, so to speak, it was at once discovered that the existing language was destitute of appropriate words to convey ideas so new * Exorbitant , the Latin conjugate verb to which, exorbito, acquired a popular figurative sense even in the classic age of Rome, was originally a term of art applied to those heavenly bodies whose path deviated much from the plane of the orbits of the planets most familiar to ancient astronomy. It has now lost its technical meaning altogether, and has no longer a place in the dialect of science. ENG. LAN. K. 130 TECHNICAL TERMS. Lect. VIII. to the English mind. The power of forming new words from indi- genous roots by composition and derivation, retained by the cognate languages, had heen lost or suspended in English, and, moreover, the Saxon primitives specially adapted for employment in this way, had been superseded by French words imported by the Norman nobility, or by a sectarian Latin phraseology introduced by the Bomish eccle- siastics. Hence new vocables, and those almost uniformly of Greek or Latin etymology, were coined for use in theological and political discussion, and many of them soon became a constituent part of the general medium of thought. In fact, a complete English metaphy- sical nomenclature was formed, and freely and familiarly used, by the great thinkers who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the materialistic age which followed, such portion of this vocabu- lary as was not already incorporated into the universal patrimony of the language, had become obsolete, and when, fifty years ago, Cole- ridge attempted to revive the forgotten study of metaphysics, he found that the current dialect of the day afforded no terms for the adequate expression of logical and philosophical categories. But a recurrence to the religious philosophy of a more intellectual age showed that the English metaphysicians of that period had in great part anticipated a nomenclature, which has been supposed to be the invention of German speculators and their followers. Reason and understanding, as words denominative of distinct faculties, the adjeo- tives sensuous, transcendental, subjective and objective, supernatural, afi an appellation of the spiritual, or that immaterial essence which is not subject to the law of cause and effect, and is thus distinguished from that which is natural, are all words revived, not invented by the school.of Coleridge.* In the mean time, and down to the present day, the rapid progress of physical science and industrial art has given birth to a great mul- titude of technical terms, a large part of which, in more or less appro- priate applications, or in figurative senses, has entered into the speech of every-day life. Thus the means of articulate and written commu- nication upon more familiar as well as more recondite subjects have * The following extract from Sir Kenelm Digby's observations on Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici is, both in manner and in matter, worthy of some much later metaphysicians : — " If God should join the Soul of a lately dead man, (even whilest his dead corps should lie entire in his winding sheet here,) unto a body made of earth taken from some mountain in America, it were most true and certain that the Body he then should live by, were the same identical body he lived with before his death and late resurrection. It is evident that sameness, thisness, and that- ness, belongeth not to matter by itself, (for a general indifference runneth through it all ;) but only as it is distinguished and individuated by the form, which in our case whensoever the soul dotii. it must bo understood always to be the sam« matter and body.^ laser. VIII. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 131 been vastly extended, even since the period when Shakespeare showed, by an experimental test, that English was already capable of exhibiting almost every conceivable phase of internal and external being in our common humanity. The permanent literature of a given period is not a true index of the general vocabulary of the period, for the exemption of a great work from the fleeting interests and passions that inspire the words of its own time, is one of the very circumstances that insure its permanence. That which is to live for ever must appeal to more catholic and lasting sympathies than those immediately belonging to the special concerns of any era, however pregnant it may be with great consequences to the weal or the woe of man. The dialects of the field, the market, and the fireside in former ages have left but an imperfect record behind them, and they are generally to be traced only in the scanty pages of the comic drama- tist, and in the few fragments of private correspondence that anti- quarian curiosity has rescued from destruction. But, for a century, the historical novel, and the periodical press, in its various forms of newspaper, solid review, and light magazine, have embodied the mutable speech of the hour, in its widest range of vocabulary, phraseological expression, and proverb. "While, therefore, we do not possess satisfactory means of testing the humours, the aims, the morals, of our remoter ancestors by the character of their familiar speech, we have, in the lighter literature of later years, ample means of detecting the unconscious expression of the mental and moral ten- dencies, which have marked tha ago of our fathers and our own. ( 1S2 ) lrot. via NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. Spenser's Language. (See p. 123.) Spenser wanted not able defenders in his own time, and the argument of one of them is worth listening to as an ex- position of the views of a -good scholar, at an important crisis in the history of the English language, and as in itself a characteristic specimen of the euphuism which was then a fashionable style of literary composition. " And first of the wordes to speake, I graunt they bee something hard, and of most men unused, yet both English, and also used of most excellent authours, and most famous poets. On whom, when as this our Poet hath bin much travailed and thoroughly read, how could it be, (as that worthio Oratour sayde,) but that walking in the Sunne, although for other cause he walked, yet needes he mought be sunburnt ; and having the sound of those auncient poets still ringing in hiB cares, he mought necdes, in singing, hit out some of their tunes. " Sure I thinke, and thinke I think not amisse, that they bring great grace, and, as one would say, authoritie to«the verse. For albe, amongst many other faults, it specially ho obiected of "Valla against Livie, and of other against Salust, that with over much studio they affect anti- quitie, as covering thereby credence and honour of elder ycarcs ; yet I am of opinion, and eke the best learned arc of the like, that those auncient solemne words are a great ornament, both in the one, and in the other. "Ofttimes an ancient words maketh the stile sccmc grave, and as it were reverend, no otherwise than we honor and reverence gray haires for a certaine religious regard which we have of old age. " But if any will rashly blame his pur- pose In choice of olde and unwonted wordes, him may I more iustly blame and condemne, or of witlesse headiness in iudging, or of heedless hardiness in condemning, for in my opinion it is one especiall praise, of many which are due to this poet, that he hath labored to restore as to their rightful heritage suoh good and naturall English wordes, as have bcene long time out of use, and almost cleane disherited. "Which is the only cause, that our mother-tongue, which truly of itself is both full inough for prose and stately enough for verse, hath long time becne counted most bare and barren of both. 'Which default when as some endeavoured to salve and recure, they patched up the holes with peeces and rags of other languages, borrowing hero of the French, there of the Italian, every where of the Latin ; not weighing how all these tongues accord with themselves hut much worse with ours : so now they have made our English tong a gallimaufry, or hodge- podge of all other speeches. " Other some, not so well scene in the English tongue, as perhaps in other languages, if they happen to hear an olde word, albeit very natural, and significant, cry out straightway, that we speake no English but gibberish, ui rather such as in olde time Evander'e mother spake ; whose first shamo *# that they are not ashamed, in their own mother-tongue to be counted strangers and aliens. The second shame no less than the first, that whatso they under- stand not, they streightway deeme to bo scnselessc and not at all to be under- stoode." B. Supposed Americanisms in Old English. (Sec p. 125.) Dampier, 1703, i. 292, has "clear round," and i. 5, fix, apparently in the New England sense. "We went ashore and dried our cloaths, cleaned our guns, dried our ammunition, and Jixt ourselves against our enemies if we should be attacked." To feel o/, occurs in Knox's Geilon, 1681. "They usually gather them before they be full ripe, boreing an hole in them, and/eelmg o/the kernel, they know if they bo ripe enough for their purpose" (p. 14). Tongucy (ttmpy), formerly common, Lect. VIII. " PAIR OF STAIRS." 133 and still sometimes used, in New Eng- land, in the sense of fluent in speech, eloquent, occurs in the older text of the Wycliffite version of Ecclus. viii, 4, ix. 25. The later text has janglere instead. C. Pair op Stairs. (See p. 127.) The phrase a pair of stairs is used by Palsgrave, Hakluyt, Shakespeare, and George Sandys, and it is found in the Memoirs of Scriblerus, as well as in many English olassics of the best age of our literature. The fancied incorrect- ness lies in a supposed misapprehension of the meaning of stair, which those who criticize the phrase imagine to be synonymous with step or tread. But this is a mistake. The Anglo-Saxon s 1 03 g e r , whence our stair, is derived from the verb stigan, to ascend or climb, which, in the form sty or stie, was in use as an English verb as late as the time of Spenser. St soger and stair, though sometimes confounded with step, properly signify alike the entire system of successive steps by which we sty or climb from one floor to another, and they may therefore be con- sidered as collective nouns. Thus Mil- ton, Paradise Lost, iii. 540-3 : *' Satan from hence, now on the lower stair, That scaled by steps of gold to heaven gate, Looks down with wonder at the sudden view Of all this world at once." But it is usual to divide the stair, when the height of the stories is con- siderable, into flights or sections sepa- rated by landing-places, and each flight might not improperly be considered an independent stair. Now in the great majority of stairs, there was but one intermediate landing-place, and of course the whole ascent from floor to floor was divided into two flights or stairs, and thus formed a pair of stairs. In the Supplement to the last edition of Webster, it is suggested that this expression originated in the use of pair to designate, not a couple, but " any number of pares, or equal things that go together ;" as " a pair (set) of chess- men, a. pair (pack) of cards," This is a plausible, and perhaps the true explana- tion ; but nevertheless, as stairs did not mean steps, but flights of steps, X think the theory I have proposed upon the whole more probable. The Gloss, of Arch. i. 242, gives this quotation from William of Worcester : " a hygh grese called a steyr of xxxii. steppys," which corresponds to Milton's use oi the words. ( 184 ) LECTURE IX. VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. § 1. Classification of languages. § 2. Derivation of words, § 3. Composi- tion of words. § 4. Simple and composite languages. § 5. Anglo-Saxon Gospels. § 6. Comparison between English and other languages in the power of derivation and composition. § 7. German scientific nomenclature compared with English. II. §' 1. Foe the purpose of obtaining a comprehensive view of par- ticular branches of knowledge, and of determining the special rela- tions which subsist between them all, modern science has found the form of generalization termed classification, a very efficient, not to nay a necessary, instrument. As an auxiliary to the comprehension of a given classification, and especially as a help to the memory in retaining it, a systematic, and, as some hold, so far. as possible, a descriptive, nomenclature is indispensable. The wide range of recent physical science, and the extent to which, in its various applications, it enters into and pervades the social life of the age, have made its dialect in some sort a common medium of intercommunication between men of different races and tongues. And thus Linnaeus, the father of modem botany and zoology, and Lavoisier, who occupies a scarcely less conspicuous position in the history of modern chemistry, have indirectly exercised almost as important an influence on the language, as, directly, upon the science of succeeding generations. A full discussion of the principles of scientific nomenclature would be too wide a digression from the path of inquiry marked out for the present course, but it will be useful to notice some misapplications of them, and I shall have occasion to recur again to the subject, in treating of the parts of speech.* I will precede what I have now to say in relation to it by some remarks on the classification of languages, and on derivation and composition in English. Languages have been variously classed according to their elements, their structure, their power of self- development, their historical origin or their geographical distribu- tion. But the application of scientific principles to the compariso» * See Lecture XIV. Leot. IX. DERIVATION OF WORDS. 135 of different languages, or families of language, is so new a study that no one system of arrangement can yet be said to have received the assent of scholars, in any other way than as a provisional distribu- tion. The nomenclature of the different branches of linguistic knowledge, phonology, derivative etymology, inflexion and syntax. is perhaps still more unsettled, and almost every Continental gram- marian proposes a new set of names for even the parts of speech. So far is the passion for anatomizing, describing and naming carried, that some philologists, as for instance Becker, divide, subdivide, dis- tinguish and specify language and its elements, until it is almost a greater effort to master and retain the analysis and its nomenclature, than to learn the grammatical forms and syntactical rules of the speech to which they are applied. I doubt the practical value ot methods so artificial as to elevate the technicalities of art above art itself, and I shall, throughout this course, which I have more than once described as altogether introductory and preparatory, confine myself, as far as practicable, to old and familiar appellations of all that belongs to the description of language and the elements which compose it. § 2. Among the various classifications of language, not the most scientific, certainly, but one of the most obvious, is that which looks at them with reference to their power of enlarging their vocabulary by varying and compounding native radicals, or in other words, their organic law of growth. This classification is incomplete, because it respects words considered as independent and individual, leaving syntactical structure and other important points altogether out of view ; but, as we are now considering the vocabulary, it is, for our present purpose, the most convenient arrangement, Derivation, in its broadest sense, includes all processes by which new words are formed from given roots. In ordinary language, how- ever, grammatical inflexions are not embraced in the term, and it may be added, that where the primitive and the derivative belong to the same language, there is usually a change of form, a change of grammatical, class, and a change of relative import.* I shall, at present, speak only of derivation from native roots. A radical, which, in its simplest form and use, serves only as an attributive, in other words an adjective, may be made to denote the quality which it ascribes, or an act by which that quality is manifested or imparted, and thus become a noun or a verb ; or contrariwise, a root which affirms the doing of an act, the being in a state, or the consciousness * There is not always a change of form, as will be seen nereafW, nor is there necessarily a change of grammatical Glass. The noun auctioneer is de- rived from the noun auction ; and again, since is derived from sitlwnce, and that from a still older form, without any change of either class or meaning. See Lecture XIV. 136 DERIVATION OF WORDS. Lkot. IX. of a sensation or emotion, and of course a verb, may become the name of an agent, a quality or a condition. Thus, to take the first case supposed, red is the simplest form in which that root is known to the English language, and in that form it is an adjective denoting that the object to which it is applied possesses a certain colour. If we add to this root the syllable -mess, forming the derivative redness, the new word means the power of producing upon the eye the sensation excited by red objects ; it becomes the name of that colour, and is a substantive. If instead of that ending, we add the syllable -den, which gives us redden, the derivative signifies to become red, or to make red, and is a verb. So in the other case, the verb admir-e, (which for the present purpose may be treated as a radical,) signi- fying to regard with wonder or surprise mingled with respect or affection, by the addition of the consonant -r, becomes a substantive, admirer, and denotes a person entertaining the sentiment I have just defined. In the form admiration, it is also a substantive, indicating the consciousness or expression of that sentiment, and if changed to admirable, it becomes an adjective expressing the possession of qualities which excite admiration, or entitle objects to be admired. In all these cases, the modified words are said to be derived from, or to be derivatives of, the simple radical, and they are changed in form by the addition of a syllable. But the change of form may be made in a different way, namely, by the substitution of other letters, usually vowels, for some of those of the radical. Thus from the verb to bind, we have, by a change of vowel, the substantives band and bond, all expressing the same radical notion ; from the verb to think, by a change of both vowel and consonant, the substantive thought ; from the verb see, by a like change, the substantive sight ; from the verb to freeze, the substantive frost ; from the substantives glass and grass, by a change of the spoken not the written vowel, the verbs to glaze and to graze. Thus far the change of grammatical class has been indicated by a change of form, and this is the usual, but not the constant process of derivation. There are still many instances, and in earlier stages of English there were many more, where a radical is employed in a new class, without a change of form. Thus the sub- stantive man, without the alteration of a letter, becomes a verb, and we say to man a ship ; so from arm, -to arm a fortress ; from saddle, bit, and bridle, to saddle, bit, or bridle a horse ; and the ' Morte d' Ar- thur ' speaks of a knight as being well sworded and well shielded, using participial forms which imply the verbs to sword, and to shield.* § 3. Composition, in etymology means the forming of one word out * In many cases of this sort the modern verb has been formed from an Anglo-Saxon word of the same etymology and grammatical class, by dropping the characteristic verbal ending -an; in others, it is altogether of recent origin, Leot. IX. COMPOSITION OF WORDS. 137 of two or more, with or without change of form in either. In words framed by composition, each of the constituents may possess and still retain an independent significance, as for example in steam-ship, in which instance each half of the word has just the same sense as when employed by itself, though, in order to complete the meaning of the compound, something must be mentally supplied, understood, as English grammarians say, or, as the Latins more happily express it, subauditum, underheard. In this case, the defect of meaning is in the want of connexion between the two halves of the word, steam and ship, and a foreigner, unacquainted with the rules of English com- position, an Italian for instance, would not be able to perceive how the English meaning could be given to the compound by the mere juxtaposition of its elements, any more than by saying v a p o r e - legno, which would express nothing. So long as this word was a new one, every English hearer supplied the notion of the elastic force of steam acting as the motive power of the ship, though now, both the name and the thing are" so familiar, that steamship does not always suggest its own etymology. This mode of composition is more appropriately called agglutination, and in the language of some rude • peoplesjt is carried soTarTthaTall the members of a period may be in- corporated into one word, which alone expresses an entire proposition. There are, however, as I shall show in treating the subject of inflex- ions, many highly refined and cultivated languages, where nearly the same thing is effected by a mere change in the form of an uncom- pounded word.* In the majority of compound words in the European languages, the component parts are not all separately significant, but the word consists of a principal radical, the sense of which is reversed, extended, limited, specificated, or otherwise qualified, by combining with it a particle or other determinative, not of itself expressive of a state, quality, or act. Of this class of compounds we have few purely English examples, the Saxon inseparable particles, and the prepositions and adverbs used as qualificatives in composition,having and, so long as it has existed as a verb, it has been identical in form with its primitive noun. The American to progress is one of the few verbalized noons of recent coin- age. It has not much to lecommend it besides its novelty, but it seems, unfor- tunately, likely to secure full recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. See further, Lecture XTV. * In speaking of polysyllabic inflexional forms as uncompounded, I do not mean to express dissent from the theory that weak inflexions generally result from the coalescence of particles or pronouns with verbal roots. As, however, the source and history of such formations are in most cases unknown, the in- flexions of cultivated languages mast, in practice, be regarded as having lost the character of compounds, and this is especially true where old and established inflexional endings are applied to words of recent origin or introduction. See Lecture XV. 138 SIMPLE AND COMPOSITE LANGUAGES. Imct. IX. become chiefly obsolete or limited in their employment, and the place of the native words into which they entered having been supplied by French or Latin compounds ready-made to our hands.* § 4. There are languages whose vocabulary is chiefly made up of primitive words, and of words which by simple and obvious rules are derived from, or composed of, primitives. These primitives or radicals are usually monosyllables indigenous to the language, and still existing in it as independent words. There are other tongues whose stock of words is of a composite character, and in a considerable degree borrowed from foreign languages, or derived from native roots now obsolete or so changed in form in the processes of derivation and composition, that they are no longer readily recognized as the source of the word. Languages of the former class freely allow the forma- tion of new words both by derivation and by composition ; those of the latter reluctantly admit a resort to either of these methods of en- riching the vocabulary, and prefer rather to enlarge their stock by borrowing from foreign tongues, than to develope and modify, by organic processes, the significance of their own primitives. Of course, here and elsewhere, I use primitive in a very restricted sense, and by no means as implying that the roots to which we refer European words are necessarily or even probably aboriginal, but simply that they have no known and demonstrable historical descent from distant or apparently remotely related tongues, and therefore stand in the place of primitives to the vocabulary which is composed, or has grown out of them. To the former of the two classes I have mentioned, that, namely, where most of the words are either primitive, or derived by obvious processes from roots familiar to every native, belong the Greek, the German, the Icelandic, and the Anglo-Saxon ; to the latter, that is where the radicals of the words are often obsolete, or their derivation obscure, belong the Latin, and, in a still higher degree, what arc called the Eomance languages, or those derived from the Latin. English occupies a place between the two, but perhaps less resembles the former than the latter, particularly as it shares with these much of their incapacity of forming at will new words from familiar roots. "■ We have still some Saxon qualificatives left, and it is much to be desired that the use of them may be extended. Thus, we precede radical verbs, sub- stantives, and adjectives, by the negative or privative syllable, un-, as in the words to undo, unbeliever, unknown ; the inseparable particle mis-, as in mis* apprehend, mis-place, mis-apply, mis-call ; the adverbs of place, out, up, and down ; as in out-side, up-hold, down-fall ; the prefix be- as in be-dew, bestrew. In these last instances, the particle be- retains its original force, and it was .formerly much more extensively used, such words as be-bled, for covered with blood, be-powdered for sprinkled with powder, being very common, but in most modern words with this prefix, it has ceased to modify the meaning of the radi- cal appreciably. Lias*, u. aKglq-saaon gosPixs. 139 The power of derivation and composition was eminently characteristic of our maternal Anglo-Saxon, but was much diminished upon the introduction of the Norman French, or, to speak more justly, the Latin element, which refused to accommodate itself to this organic faculty of the Saxon tongue. § 5. A comparison of the Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospels with the received version, is instructive on this point. The latter is distinguished for its freedom from Latinisms, and was made with constant reference to the Greek, and with an evident design sedu- lously to avoid unnecessary coincidences of expression with the Vulgate and the older translations made from it. The Anglo-Saxon version was taken from the Itala or the Vulgate, and probably, though this is not certain, without any opportunity of comparison with translations in other languages, and yet its vocabulary is almost purely of native growth. Even the special words characteristic of the civil and political life of Judea, and of the Jewish and Christian religions, are very generally supplied by indigenous words, simple or compound, of corresponding etymology. The standard English ver- sion adopts, without translation, the words prophet, scribe, sepulchre, centurion, baptize, synagogue, resurrection, disciple, parable, trea- sure, pharisee, whereas the Anglo-Saxon employs, instead, native words, often, no doubt, framed for this special purpose. Thus, for prophet we have w i t e g a , a wise or knowing man ; for scribe, b o c e r e , book-man ; for sepulchre, b y r g e n , whence our words bury, and barrow in the sense of funeral-mound ; for centurion, hundred-man, the etymological equivalent of the Latin cen- turio; for baptize, fullian; for synagogue, gesamnung, con- gregation; for resurrection, asrist, uprising; for disciple, leorn- ing-cniht, learning-youth ; for parable, b i g s p e 1 , the German Beispiel, example; for treasure, gold-hord; for pharisee, sunder -halga, over-holy. The word employed as the equiva- lent of repentance, or the Latin posnitentia, is remarkable because it does not involve the notion of penance, a ceremonial or disciplinary satisfaction, which is a characteristic of the Romish theology, and seems implied even in the Lutheran Busse thun. The Anglo-Saxon dsedbote don, dasdbote, which are used for repent and repentance, convey the idea of making satisfaction or compensation, not to the Church, but to the party wronged, and therefore, if not proper translations of the corresponding words in the Greek text, they are departures from the Vulgate. I cannot but regard these facts as an argument of some weight in support of the theory which maintains that the primitive English Church was sub- stantially independent of the Papal See. § 6. Our present power of derivation and composition is much restricted, and while many other living languages can change all 140 COMPOSITION OF WORDS. Llsol. IX nouns, substantive and adjective, into each other, or into verbs, and vice versa, still retaining the root-form, which makes the new-coined word at once understood by every native ear, we, on the contrary, are constantly obliged to resort to compounds of foreign and to us unmeaning roots, whenever we wish to express a complex idea by a single word. The German and other cognate languages still retain this command over their own hereditary resources, and, in point of ready intelligibility and picturesqueness of expression, they have thus an important advantage over languages which, like the Latin and its derivatives, possess less plastic power. There are, in all the Gothic tongues, numerous compounds, of very obvious etymology, which are most eminently expressive, considered as a part of what may be called the nature-speech of man, as contrasted with that which is more appropriately the dialect of literature and art, and thus those languages are very rich, just where, as I remarked in a former lecture, our own is growing poor. The vocabulary belonging to the affections, the terms descriptive of the spontaneous action of the intellectual and moral faculties, the pictorial words which bring the material creation vividly before us, these in the languages in questiou are all more numerous, more forcible than the Latin terms by which we have too often supplied their places. The facility of derivation and composition in the Greek and Gothic languages is almost unlimited, and a native, once master of the radicals, and fully possessed of the laws of formation, can at any time extemporize a word for the precise expression of any complete idea he may choose to embody in a single vocable. Aristophanes has a word of fourteen syllables, from six radicals, signifying meanly-rising-early- and-hurrying-to-the-tribunal-to-denounce-another-for-an-infraction-of- a-law-concerning-the-exportation-of-figs, so that one word expresses an idea, the translation of which into English occupies twenty-two In another case, the same dramatist coins a word of seventy-two syllables, as the name of a dish composed of a great number of in- gredients, and Richter quotes Porster as authority for a Sanskrit com- pound of one hundred and fifty-two syllables. Voss has framed a German equivalent for the first mentioned of these sesquipedalia verba*, eighteen-inch words, as Horace calls them, and the German word, like the Greek, is, in this and other similar cases, an example of agglutination rather than technical etymological composition. In the Gothic languages, the elements of the compound are not generally very numerous, but Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon and German have many very forcible inseparable particles and modes of composition, by which a wonderful life and vigour is imparted to language. Thus in Icelandic the particle of, too much, is instinct with meaning, and Lect. IX. COMPOSITION OF WORDS. 141 when a man of lower rank reproved his foster-son, a Norwegian king, for indiscreetly conferring too high rank on a subject, he ad- ministered a more pointed rebuke by the single compound, o f- j ar 1, f<5stri minn! (too much a jarl, my foster-son!) than if he had said, as one would express the same thought in English, You are too liberal in bestowing rank ! You promote Sveinn above his merits ! In the same admirable language, a word of three syllables precisely equivalent in its elements, and almost in form, to our words father and letter, means a son who has surpassed the merits of his father. The Anglo-Saxon inseparable particles, wan-, be-, and/co-- corresponding to the German v e r -, had great force and beauty, and the writer who shall restore them to their primitive use and signifi- cance will confer a greater benefit upon our poetical dialect than he who shall naturalize a thousand Romance radicals.* We have a few compounds with the prefix for- remaining. For example, forbid is compounded of bid and for- used in the sense of opposition or contrast, so that bid, which means to command, when compounded with for-, signifies to prohibit ; but most of the words into which this particle entered are unfortunately obsolete. How much better a word is forbled, than faint from bleeding ; fordo, than ruin ; fordwined, than dwindled away ; foifoughten, than tired with fighting ; forjudge, than unjustly condemn ; forpined, than wasted away ; forwatched than weary with watching; forwandred, than tired with wandering, or, in another sense, than having lost the way ; forchased, than weary of pursuit ; forwept, than exhausted with weeping ; forworn, than tired or worn out ; and so, what a losing bargain we made when we exchanged those beautiful words, wanhope, for despair, and wantrust, for jealousy or suspicion ! However stable in its structure English must now be considered, yet the warfare between its elements is not absolutely ended, and though peace has been proclaimed, some skirmishing is still going on. We yet forge out questionable derivatives and solder together unlawful compounds, in colloquial and especially jocular discourse, and bold authors like Carlyle will now and then venture to print a heterodox formation. Good writers were less scrupulous two hundred years ago, but since Queen Anne's time we are become too precise, and as the French say precious, to tolerate the words in which our progenitors delighted. Fuller concerned himself little about starched verbal criticism, helped himself to a good word wherever he could find it, and, when need was, manufactured one for the purpose. Thus, in telling the story of the elderly gentleman with two female friends, one of whom, near his own age, plucked out his black hairs, the other, more juvenile, his white ones, he says the younger u»- * See Notes and Illustrations, Inseparable Particles, 142 GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. Lect. IX. grayhaired him.* This, however, is not worse than our now common triplicate compounds, horse-rail-road, steam-tow-boat, and the like.f The Icelandic and the Anglo-Saxon, though not inferior to ths German in facility of composition, had nevertheless a smaller number of distinctive and derivative forms, and they were thus driven to use composition in some cases, where the Teuton expressed a similar notion by a difference of ending. Of these combinations, there is one common to the Scandinavian and the English, which, in awkwardness, surpasses almost anything to be met with in any other speech. I refer to that by which the distinction of sex is expressed, not by a termination or an independent adjective, but by using the personal pronoun as a prefix, as for example in the words lie-bear and she-hear, he-goat and she-goat. % 7. The effort which German scholars have long been making to substitute native for foreign derivatives and compounds, has occasioned the fabrication of many extremely clumsy words, and the newly awakened zeal for the study of Anglo-Saxon and Old English will probably lead to somewhat similar results in our tongue. The prin- ciples of composition may then be considered to have a prospective, if not an immediate, practical bearing on English etymology, and I will illustrate some of them by examples drawn from the German, which exhibit their actual application in more tangible and intelligible shapes than the present scientific dialect of English presents. Take-, * The privative un- was formerly much more freely used than at present. Heywood has unput, and Fuller, in his sermon ' Comfort in Calamity,' says, " God permitteth the foundations to be destroyed, because he knows he can un- destroy them, I mean rebuild them." Sylvester, the translator of the " Divine " Du Bartas, the delight of Shakespeare's contemporaries, uses to un-olde for to re-juvenate : — " Minde-gladding fruit that can un-olde a man." Du Bahtas, edition of 1611, p. 60S. In the Wycliffite versions, Prol. to Romans, 299, we find : " The Jewis . . . . bi breking of the lawe have vnworshipid God ;" and Rom. i. 13, " I nyle for you to vnknowe." Lord Clarendon somewhere has, " untahen notice of." t Clumsy as are some of these compounds, the French are sometimes driven to employ combinations even more unwieldy. Chinese-sugar-cane may be endured, but canne-a-sucre-de-la-Chine can only be paralleled by our mongrel jpooket-hand-ker-chief. Sylvester is remarkable for the boldness of his agglutinations. In his series of sonnets, ' The Miracle of Peace,' we find ," the In-one-Christ-baptbei,' " the selfe-weale-wounding Lance," " th' yerst-most-prince-loyal people," and others not less extraordinaiy. J Not less awkward than these compounds is the employment of the personal pronoun for male and female, as in Dampier, 1703, i. 106 :".... both His and She's [the turtles] come ashoar in the day-time and lie in the sun." Grimm's Dictionary, under Er, 11, gives very similar examples of the employ- ment of er and sie in German, and this is hardly worse than the common German use of the neuter diminutives, Mannchen and Wci'ochen, man- ling and wifelinrj, to designate, respectively, the male and the female of animals. Lect. IX. SCIENTIFIC- COMPOUNDS. 143 for instance, the idea of fluidity. The Anglo-Saxon and the Old German had no substantive to express this notion, the condition of being fluid, but they used the specific words water, oil, and the like, instead of framing a generic term to express them all. Science has taught that, besides the gross, heavy, visible, incompressible fluids, water and oil, there are more ethereal substances, possessing the quality of fluidity, that is of flowing and. spreading indefinitely when only partially confined, and which are, besides, light and highly com- pressible, elastic, and, usually, invisible and apparently inadhesive. Of such fluids, common air, and the more recently detected gases, are familiar examples. Before the essential character of the gases was understood, English had borrowed the -word, fluidity from the Latin, to denote the most obvious and striking characteristic of water, oil, and other like bodies, and the Germans had formed from the native verb fliessen, to flow, a corresponding substantive, Eliissigkeit, which is applied both to the property of fluidity and to bodies which possess it. The knowledge of the character of gaseous fluids rendered it desirable to contrive some means of group- ing under separate denominations the two classes, namely, the incompressible, inelastic, visible, and the compressible, elastic, and invisible fluids. In English, we have not yet distinguished them, except by adding the epithets elastic, gaseous, compressible, or inelastic, incompressible ; but in Germany compound adjectives have been framed, which, clothed in an English form, would answer to elastic-fluid substances and dropable-fluid substances, or, those which left free expand themselves like air, and those which can be dropped or poured out, like water. In English we confine the ap- pellation liquid to these latter, but we apply fluid indiscriminately to both. Thus we call oil and water liquids, but we cannot speak ot air and the simple gases as liquids, though in poetry the phrase liquid ether and the like are used ; but on the other hand, we apply the substantive and adjective fluid to air, water, and oil alike. Doubtless the period is not far distant when the elastic and the in- elastic fluids will be distinguished by appropriate designations in English, though it may be hoped less cumbrous ones than the Ger- man, and we shall also probably have specific generalizations for the watery and the oleaginous fluids. However desirable it may be to recover the ancient plasticity ot the Anglo-Saxon speech, and to restore to circulation many of its obsolete most expressive words, yet the prevalence, among English scholars, of a purism as exclusive as that of Germany, would be a serious injury to the language, as indeed I think it is in German itself though of course a far less evil in a harmonious and unmixed speech like the German, than in one fundamentally composite, and, to use a legal term, repugnant, like ours. German is singularly homo- geneous and consistent in its vocabulary and its structure, and tho 144 GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. Leot. IX. desire to strengthen and maintain its oneness of character is extremely natural with those to whom it is vernacular. The essential unity of its speech gives its study immense value as both a philological and an intellectual discipline, and it has powerfully contributed to the eminently national and original character of a literature which, for a century, has done more to widen the sphere of human knowledge, and elevate the habitual range of human thought, than the learning and the intellect of all the world besides. I think, nevertheless, that it has purchased its present linguistic purity at some cost of clearness and precision of expression, perhaps even at some loss of distinctness of thought. Although it must be admitted, that facility of word-coinage is in many respects a great linguistic convenience, it is quite another question whether, in philosophical exactness of meaning, anything, Is gained by using words derived from or compounded of roots so familiar that they continually force upon us their often trivial etymology, and thus withdraw our attention from the figurative or abstract meaning which we seek to impose upon them. We express most moral affections, most intellectual functions and attributes, most critical categories and most scientific notions, by words derived from Greek and Latin primitives. Such words do not carry their own definition with them, and to the mere English student they are purely arbitrary in their signification.* The scientific writer who introduces or employs them, may so define his terms as to attach to them the precise idea he wishes to convey, and the reader or hearer receives the word unaccompanied by any incon- gruous image suggested by its root-form. Where, on the contrary, words applied to such noble uses are derived from common and often vulgar roots, from the vocabulary of the market, the kitchen or the stable, the thoughts of the reader must be frequently disturbed by gross or undignified images, called forth by an etymology drawn from the names of familiar and humble objects and processes. Take, for instance, the geographical meaning of the Latin-English words longitude and latitude. The ancients supposed the torrid and the frigid zones to be uninhabitable and even impenetrable by man, but while the earth, as known to them, was bounded westwardly by the Atlantic Ocean, it extended indefinitely towards the east. The dimensions of the habitable world, then (and ancient geography embraced only the home of man, fj olxovfievrj), were much greater, measured from west to east, than from south to north. Accordingly, early geographers called the greater dimension, or the east and west line, the lengt h, longitudo, of the earth, the shorter dimension, or the north and south line, they denominated its breadth, latitude. * See Lecture IV. Lfct. IX. GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 145 These Latin terms are retained in the modern geography of most European nations, but with a modified meaning. The north or south distance of any point on the earth's surface from the equator is the north or south latitude of that point. The east or west distance between two lines drawn perpendicularly to the equator, through two points on the earth's surface, is the east or west longitude of those points from each other. Latitude and longitude etymologically indeed mean Ireadth and length, yet, in their use in English, their form does not suggest to the student their primary radical significa- tion, and he attaches to them no meaning whatever but their true scientific import. The employment of the English terms "breadth and length, to denote respectively north and south and east and west distance on the surface of a sphere, would, in the present advanced state of our knowledge, be a perversion of the true meaning of words. Yet this is exactly what German purism does when it rejects the precise, philosophic longitude and latitude, substitutes for them the vague and inaccurate terms Lange and Breite, length and breadth, and says, accordingly, that St. Petersburg lies, in sixty degrees of north breadth, and twenty-eight of east length from Paris. Still more palpable is this abuse of speech when a different form of expression is employed, and we are told that the breadth of the city of New York is 41° N., its length 74° W* In like manner, the English adjective great and the German gross are both, in their proper signification, applicable only to objects which, as tested by the ordinary standards of comparison, are large, and their nouns, greatness in the one language, Grbsse in the other, are strictly conjugate in meaning. In the philosophic dialect of English and the Romance languages, we employ magnitude as the scientific equivalent of size, dimensions. Magnitude is derived from the Latin magnus, great, but that ntymology is not so fami- liar to English ears as to attach to the word magnitude the idea of relatively large bulk, and we apply the term, without a sense of incongruity, to the dimensions of any object however small. The Germans use G r o s s e as the scientific equivalent of magnitude, and in this they pervert language in the same way we should do, in speaking of the greatness of microscopic animalculse so small that a hundred of them could he on the point of a pin. So in chemistry and in the language of industrial art, to calcine signifies to reduce, by longer or shorter exposure to heat, metals and * I do not know whether the Germans or the Dutch were the first to trans- late longitude and latitude by native words of their respective tongues. The earliest examples I have noted of the use of modern equivalents of these words are in Dapper, Beschrijving van Persie, 1672. " De stadt Derbend is gelegen op de lengte van vijf en tachtig graden, en op de nooder breete van een en veertigh graden, dertigh ininuten" (p. 20). ENQ. LAN. L 146 GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. Lect. IX. other bodies popularly considered incombustible, to a friable condition. The burning of lime is a familiar instance of calcination, and in fact calcine is derived from calx, the Latin word for lime. Burnt limestone, and the substances to which metals and many other bodies are reduced by heat, having a certain resemblance to each other in consistence and other properties, were conceived to be chemi- cally related, and therefore the name of calx was applied to these substances in the dialect of the alchemists, and passed from their laboratories into the language of common life. The English verb calcine, to us, to whom the etymology of the word is not always present, expresses precisely the reduction of incombustible substances to the state of a calx. The modern German uses, instead of the alchemical calciniren, the verb verkalken, derived from Kalk, lime, which is no doubt allied to the Latin calx, and pro- bably enough derived from it. But Kalk has not the signification of calx, and the verb verkalken, therefore, properly means to reduce to lime, not to bring to the condition of a calx, which latter acceptation the scientific purists have arbitrarily, and in ..violation of the principles of their own language, imposed upon it. We have some, but, happily, not many similar examples in the received scientific dialect of English. Our substantive acid, for instance, is Latin, but, for want of a native term, we employ it as a conjugate noun to the adjective sour, and it has become almost as familiar a word as sour itself. Chemistry adopted acid as the technical name of a class of bodies, of which those first recognized in science were distinguished by sourness of taste. But as chemical knowledge advanced, it was discovered that there were compounds precisely analogous in essential character, which were not sour, and consequently acidity was but an accidental quality of some of these bodies, not a necessary or universal characteristic of all. It was thought too late to change the name, and accordingly in all the European languages the term acid, or its etymological equivalent, is now applied to rock-crystal, quartz, and flint. In like manner, from a similar misapplication of salt, in scientific use, chemists class the substance of which junk-bottles, French mirrors, windows and opera glasses are made, among the salts, while, on the other hand, analysts have declared that the essential character, not only of other so-called salts, but of common kitchen-salt, the salt of salts, had been mis- taken, that salt is not a salt, and accordingly have excluded that substance from the class of bodies upon which, as their truest repre- sentative, it had bestowed its name.* The attempt to press into the service of the exact sciences words taken from the vocabulary of common life is thus seen to be objectionable, because such words are * Liebig, Chemisette Briefs, Vierte Auflage, i Lect. IX. GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. 147 incapable of scientific precision and singleness of meaning, and, more- over, as in the instances cited, they often express entirely false notions of physical fact. With respect to. compounds of trivial roots, it must be admitted that they are advantageously employed as the names of familiar material or immaterial objects and processes, of a somewhat complex but not abstruse nature. Thus steamboat is a better word than the Greco-French pyroscaphe, the German Vorgefiihl than presentiment. So English physicians would have done more wisely in adopting the plain descriptive compounds, day-blindness and night-blindness, which, as appellations of certain affections of the sight, explain themselves, than to borrow the Greek nyctalopia, which has been applied by some writers to one of these maladies, by others to its converse, and which, as wc leam from Isidore, the grandson of the great King Theodoric, was just as equivocal twelve hundred and fifty years ago as it is to-day.* But in the use of these words in the dialect of science, in their application to abstract or obscure philosophical conceptions, the inap- propriateness of a nomenclature derived from familiar roots is often very obvious. Our English word anatomy, which, referred to its Greek original, means simply cutting up, has come to have the signification of carefully dissecting, separating, or laying open by the knife, the framework, tissues and vessels of animal bodies with a view of studying the structure and functions of their organs ; and all this is fairly implied and felt by every speaker or hearer, whenever the word is uttered, nor does it suggest to the mind any other possible signifi- cation, or call up any alien image. Many German writers have chosen to repudiate this so expressive, definite, and strictly philo- sophic word, and to substitute for it the compound Zerglie- derungskunst, which, dressed in. an English form, would be equivalent to the Art-of -dismembering, or more exactly, the TJn- limbing-art. Now. this unwieldy compound rather expresses the act of dissecting, the mechanical part of anatomy, and some therefore have thought it necessary to employ another word, Zerglie- derungswissenschaft, the knowledge or science of unlimbing, to indicate the scientific purpose and character of anatomy, which is so happily implied in what to us is a purely arbitrary word. Whenever a derivative or compound term may, without violence, have several meanings, it is a matter of considerable difficulty for those to whom all these meanings are, so to speak, instinctively fami liar, to confine their intellectual conceptions strictly to one, but, to the * " NvKTaKairla est passo qua per diem visus patentibus oculis denegatur, et nocturnis irruentibus tenebris redditur, aut versa vice (ut plerique volunt die redditur, nocte negatur." — Isidokus Orig. iv. c. viii. 148 GERMAN SCIENTIFIC NOMENCLATURE. Lect. IX. English student, anatomy is practically not a compound. He does not refer it to its etymological source, and to him it can mean nothing but scientific dissection ; nor can the word suggest any image not appropriately belonging to that idea. In the nomenclature of Chemistry, to designate the bodies which, because analysis is not yet carried beyond them, are provisionally denominated simple substances, we employ Greek compounds, giving to them, by formal definition, and therefore arbitrarily, a precise, distinct, rigorously scientific meaning, excluding all other direct or collateral, proper or figurative, significations. In the German chemical nomenclature, these bodies are designated by Teutonic compounds derived from roots as trivial as any in the language. The words carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, employed in English, do not recall their etymology, and their meaning is gathered only from technical definition. They express the entire scientific notion of the objects they stand for, and are abridged definitions, or rather signs of definition, of those objects. They are to the English student as purely intellectual symbols as the signs of addition, subtraction, and equality in Algebra, or, to use a more appropriate simile, as their initials C for carbon, H for hydrogen, for oxygen, and the like, which, in conjunction with numerals, are used in expressing quanti- tative proportions in primary combinations. The corresponding German compounds, Kohl-Stoff, Wasser-Stoff, Sauer- Stoff, and Stick-Stoff, coal-stuff, water-stuff, sour-stuff, and choice-stuff, express, each, only a single one of the characteristics of the body to which they are applied, to say nothing of the unphiloso- phical tendency of thus grossly materializing and vulgarizing our conception of agencies so subtile and so ethereal in their nature.* * The use of the new German technical terms is subject to this further incon- venience, that the compound will not admit the adjectival form, and of course the noun is without a conjugate attributive. While, therefore, a German may say, in pure Teutonic, for anatomy, the Art r of-dismembering ; for astronomy, Star-knowledge ; for geography, Earth-kDowledge and Earth-description (either of which, by the way, may as properly apply to soil or rock as to the globe), yet when he has occasion for a corresponding adjective, he must resort to the Greek compounds anatomisch, astronomisch, geographisch, and thus he introduces confusion into his scientific dialect, and loses whatever had been gained by the introduction of native compound nouns. So, in expressing the quantitative proportions determined by ultimate analysis in chemistry, he uses H and 0, the initials of hydrogen and oxygen, to represent those bodies, and the student of chemistry is taught that H stands for Wasserstoff, for Sauerstoff, and so of the rest. The philosophers of Holland have exhibited a greater degree of etymological courage than their German brethren. They have framed conjugate adjectives for their newly-formed scientific compound nouns, and thus built up such words as ontleedkundig for anatomical, de proefondervindelijke weten^ sohappen for the experimental sciences, in which last heptasvllable, indeed, the radical word proef is probably not indigenous, but borrowed from the Latin through the French. Lect. IX. EQUIVOCAL WORDS. 149 It is no answer to the objections I am urging to say that habit reconciles us to the scientific use of unscientific terms ; that they at length, when employed in combination with other words of art, sink their etymology, so to speak, and cease to suggest disturbing images ; for just in the same proportion as they do this they cease to be descriptive at all, and the only argument left for their use is that of a form more in harmony with the ordinary orthoepical combinations of the language ; an argument certainly not to be weighed against the obvious disadvantages of a vocabulary which is not only trivial, but which scientific discovery is constantly showing to have been founded on false analogies, and erroneous theory. There is, it must be admitted, a convenience in the double forms of some part of the German neologistic nomenclature, as for example in . the distinction between Erdkunde, the knowledge of the earth, and Brdbeschreibung, the description of the earth. These ideas are indeed logically distinguishable, because we may know that which we do not undertake to describe, and we may undertake to describe that which we know, or, as experience unhappily too often shows, that which we do not know ; but it is by no means clear that there is any advantage in having a separate word for the expression . of every distinguishable shade of human thought. True it is, as is observed by Coleridge, that " by familiarizing the mind to equivocal expressions, that is, such as may be taken in two or more different meanings, we introduce confusion of thought, and furnish the sophist with his best and handiest tools. For the juggle of sophistry consists, for the greater part, in using a word in one sense in the premises, and in another sense in the conclusion." But it is equally true, as the same great master elsewhere remarks, that "it is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order to distinguish." The ramifications and subdivisions of our vocabulary must end somewhere. The per- mutations and combinations of articulate sounds are not infinite, nor can the human memory retain an unlimited number of words. It is inevitable that in some cases one word must serve to express different ideas, and, if they be ideas from the occasional confusion of which no danger to any great moral or intellectual principle is to be feared, we must be content to trust to the intelligence of our hearers to distin- guish for themselves. There is much intellectual discipline in the mere use of language. The easiest disciplines are not necessarily the best, and therefore a vocabulary so complete as never to exercise the sagacity of a reader, by obliging him to choose between two meanings, either of which is possible, would afford very little training to faculties of whose culture speech is of itself the most powerful instrument. f 150 ) I.ECT. IX. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. In sep ah able Particles. (Seep. 141.) It is Very difficult to define the mean- ing of inseparable particles, because their force is usually more or less modified by that of the radical with which they are combined, and therefore their signifi- cance is best learned by the study of examples. Be- is sometimes an inten- sive of the sense of the verb to -which it is prefixed, but it more usually and properly serves to express a peculiar relation between the radical notion con- veyed by the verb and the nominative or objective of the verb, by which, while the nominative and objective retain their syntactical character of subject and object, they are logically placed in a different category. Thus, if I sprinkle water, the object on which the drops fall is besprinkled ; I bestrew the ground with roses by strewing the flowers upon it ; dry earth is powdered to dust, and the garments of a traveller are be- powdered with the dust. In very many Anglo-Saxon, as well as modern English verbs, the prefix be- has no discoverable fyrce, and in several instances we uso be- where the primitive word was com- pounded with the particle g e . Our believe, for example, is the Anglo-Saxon ge-lyfan, (the German glauben). I do not know that the history of this change has been traced, but it took place very early, for gereden, a parti- cipial form, is the only word in Layamon with the prefix g e - , and it occurs in the Ormulum only in gehatenn, also a participle. The prefix «- (the Saxon participial and preterite augment g e - , possibly distinct from the prefix ge-, used with other forms) is met with in the Ormulum in one instance only, but in many cases in Layamon. The com- pound form believe does not occur in the Ormulum at all, 1 e f e n n and trow- wenn, the modern trow, being em- ployed instead ; but it is often used in Layamon in different verbal and nominal forms, as-bileaf, bilef, verbs, and bilefue, bileuc, noun. For- (not to be confounded with fore-, as in /ore- tell) seems to have corresponded nsarly to the German v e r - in all its various uses, and, as in the case of be-, its pecu- liar force is too subtle and variable to be fixed by definition. ( 151 LECTURE X. VOCABULARY OP THE ENGLISH LANQUAOE. 1. The relations between man and his speech. § 2. Unity of national lan- guage. § 3. Language and character. § 4. Ethical character of words. § 5. Religious terms. § 6. Vague words. § 7. Reaction of words. § 8. Moderation in language. III. § 1. The aphorism, popularly, but perhaps erroneously, ascribed to Buflbn, " The style is the man," is a limited application of the general theory, that there is such a relation between the mind of man and the speech he uses, that a perfect knowledge of either would enable an acute psychological philologist to deduce and construct the other from it. The distinctive characteristics of nations or races employing different tongues, so far as we are able to account for them, are due to causes external to the individual, though common in their operation to the whole people, such as climate, natural productions, modes of life dependent on soil and climate, or, in short, physical con- ditions. We might then admit this theory, without qualification, if it were once established that the language of a people is altogether a natural product of their physical constitution and circumstances, and that its character depends upon laws as material as those which deter- mine the hue and growth of the hair, the colour of the eyes and skin, the musical quality of the human voice, or the inarticulate cries of the lower animals. But those who believe that there is in man a life above organization, a spirit above nature, will be slow to allow that his only instrument for the outward manifestation of his mightiest intellectual energies and loftiest moral aspirations, as well as his sole means of systematic culture for the intellect and heart, can be the product of a mode of physical being which, though in some points superior in degree, is yet identical in kind, with that shared also by the lowest of the brutes that acknowledge him as their lord and master. Nor is the theory in question at all consistent with observed facts ; for while nations, not distinguished by any marked differences of physical structure or external condition, use languages characterized by wide diversities of vocabulary and syntax, individuals 152 RELATIONS BETWEEN MAN AND HIS SPEECH. Lect. X, in the same nation, the same household, even, display striking dis- similarities of person, of intellect, and of temper, and yet, in spite of perceptible variations in articulation, and in the choice and collocation of words, speak in the main not only one language, but one dialect. History presents numerous instances of a complete revolution in national character, without any radical change in the language of the people, and, contrariwise, of persistence of character with a great change in tongue. The forms of speech which the slavish, and therefore deservedly enslaved, Roman of the first century of our era employed in addressing Tiberius, were as simple and direct as those of a soldier would have been in conversing with his centurion in the heroic age of Eegulus. The Icelander of the twelfth century carried the law of blood for blood as far as the Corsican or the Kabyle of the nineteenth, and when his honour was piqued, or his passions roused, he was as sanguinary in his temper as the Spaniard, the Anizeh- Arab, or the Ashantee. His descendants, speaking very nearly the same dialect, are so much softened in character, that violence is almost unknown among them, and when, a few years since, a native was condemned to death, not one of his countrymen could be induced to act as the minister of avenging justice. On the other hand, it would be difficult to make out any difference of character, habits, or even ethical system, between the Bedouin of the present day and his an- cestors in the time of Abraham and of Job, and yet his language has unquestionably undergone many great changes. The relations between man and his speech are not capable of pre- cise formulation, and we cannot perhaps make any nearer approach to exact truth than to say, that while every people has its general analogies, every individual has his peculiar idiosyncrasies, physical, mental, and linguistic, and that mind and speech, national and indi- vidual, modify and are modified by each other, to an extent, and by the operation of laws, which we are not yet able to define, though, in particular instances, the relation of cause and effect can be confidently affirmed to exist. § 2. But, in the midst of this uncertainty, we still recognize the working of the great principle of diversity in unity, which charac- terizes all' the operations of the creative mind, and though every man has a dialect of his own, as he has his own special features of cha- racter, his distinct peculiarities of shape, gait, tone, and gesture, in short, the individualities which make him John and not Peter, yet, over and above all these, he shares in the general traits which together make up the unity of his language, the unity of his nation. " Unity of speech," says a Danish writer, "is a necessary condition of the independent development of a people, and the coexistence of two languages in a political state is one of the greatest national mis- fprtunes. Every race has its own organic growth, which impresses Leot. X. UNITY OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE. 153 its own peculiar form on the religious ideas and the philosophical opinions of the people, on their political constitution, then legislation, their customs ; and the expression of all these individualities is found in the speech. In this are embalmed that to which they have aspired, that to which they have attained. There we find the record of their thought, its comprehension, wealth, and depth, the life of the people, the limits of their culture, their appetencies and their an- tipathies, whatsoever has germinated, fructified, ripened, and passed away among them,— yes, even their shortcomings and their trespasses. The people and their language are so con-natural, that the one thrives, changes, perishes with the other." So far our author ; and, with the allowances to be made for the exaggeration into which writers are often led by their enthusiasm for their subject, his views are entitled to general concurrence. We think by words, and there- fore thought and words cannot but act and react on each other. As a man speaks, so he thinks, and as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. It is evident, therefore, that unity of speech is essential to the unity of a people. Community of language is a stronger bond than identity of .religion or of government, and contemporaneous nations of one speech, however formally separated by differences of creed or of political organization, are essentially one in culture, one in tendency, one in influence. The fine patriotic effusion of Amdt, " Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland ? " was founded upon the idea that the oneness of the Deutsche Zunge, the German speech, implied a oneness of spirit, of interest, of aims, and of duties, and the universal acceptance with •which the song was received was evidence that the poet had struck a chord to which every Teutonic heart responded. The national lan- guage is the key to the national intellect, the national heart, and it is the special vocation of what is technically called philology, as distin- guished from linguistics, to avail itself of the study of language as a aieans of knowing, not man in the abstract, but man as collected into distinct communities, informed with the same spirit, exposed to the same moulding influences, and pursuing the same great objects by substantially the same means. We are certainly not authorized to conclude that all the individuals of a nation are altogether alike because they speak the same mother-tongue, but their characters pre- sumably resemble each other as nearly as the fragments of the common language which each has appropriated to his own use. Every indi- vidual selects from the general stock his own vocabulary, his favourite combinations of words, his own forms of syntax, and thus frames for himself a dialect, the outward expression of which is an index to the inner life of the man. No two Englishmen, Germans, or Frenchmen speak and act in all points alike, yet in the character, as well as in speech, they would generally be found to have more points of sym- 154 LANGUAGE AN D CHAKACTEK. LEOT. A, pathy and resemblance with each other, than either of them with any man of a different tongue. § 3. The relations between the grammatical structure or general idiom of a language, and the moral and intellectual character of those who speak it, are usually much more uncertain and obscure than the connexion between the particular words which compose their stock, and the thoughts, habits and tendencies of those who employ them. Except under circumstances where our mouths are sealed, and our thoughls suppressed, from motives of prudence, of delicacy, or of shame, the names of the objects dearest to the heart, the expression of the passions which most absorb us, the nomenclature of the religious, social, or political creeds or parties to which we have at- tached ourselves, will most frequently rise to the lips. Hence it is the vocabulary and the phraseological combinations of the man, or class of men, which must serve as the clue to guide us into the secret recesses of their being ; and in spite of occasional exceptions, apparent or real, it is generally true that our choice of words, as also of the special or conventional meanings of words, is determined by the cha- racter, the ruling passion, the habitual thoughts, — by the life, in short, of the man ; and in this sense Ben Jonson uttered a great and important truth when he said, " Language most shows a man : speak that I may see thee ! It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the imago of the parent of it, the mind. No glass ren- ders a man's form and likeness so true as his speech." But there is much risk of error in the too-extended application of this criterion. In two cases only can we be justified in condemning a people upon the strength of indications furnished by then - language alone. The one is that of the voluntary, or at least the free, selection of a debased or perverted diction, when a higher and purer one is possible ; the other, that of the non-existence of words expressive of great ideas, and this will generally be found coupled with an abun- dance in terms denoting, and yet not stigmatizing, gross and wicked acts and passions. There are eases where the crimes of rulers are mirrored in the speech of their subjects ;* others, where governments, by a long course of corruption, oppression, and tyranny, have stamped upon the lan- guage of their people, or at least upon its temporary conventionalities, a tone of hypocrisy, falsehood, baseness, that clings to the tongue, even after the spirit of the nation is emancipated, and it is prepared to vindicate, by deeds of heroism, the rights, the principles, the dignity of its manhood. " 'Tis you that say it, nol I. You d » the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words." Sophocles, as translated by Milton. Lect. X. LANGUAGE AlTO CHARACTER. 155 I think the language of Italy is a case in point. Landor argues the profound and hopeless depravity of the Italians from the abject character of their complimentary and social dialect, and the phraseo- logy expressive of their relations with their rulers or other superiors, as well as from the pompous style by which they magnify the importance of things in themselves insignificant, and their constant use of superlatives and intensives, with reference to trifling objects and occasions. Were it true that the Lombards, the Piedmontese, the Tuscans, and the Romans of the present day had not inherited, but freely adopted, the dialect, of which Landor gives a sort of anthology, it would argue much in favour of his theory. A bold, and manly, and generous, and truthful people certainly would not choose to say umiliare una supplica, to humiliate a sup- plication, for, to present a memorial ; to style the strength which awes, and the finesse which deceives, alike, onesta, honesty or respectability ; to speak of taking human life by poison, not as a crime, but simply as a mode of facilitating death, ajutare la morte; to employ pellegrino, foreign, for admirable ; to apply to a small garden and a cottage the title of un podere,a power ; to call every house with a large door, un palazzo, a palace ; a brass ear-ring, una gioja, a joy; a present of a bodkin, un r e g a 1 o , a royal munificence ; an alteration in a picture, u n p e n - timento, a repentance ; a man of honour, u n uomo di garbo, a well-dressed man ; a lamb's fry, una cosa stupenda,a stupendous thing; or a message sent by a footman to his tailor, through a scullion , una ambasciata, an embassy. We must distinguish between cases where words expressive of great ideas, mighty truths, do not at all exist in a languivge, and those where, as in Italy, the pressure of external or accidental circumstances has compelled the disuse or misapplication of such, and the habitual employment of the baser part of the national vocabulary. Where grand words are found in a speech, there grand thoughts, noble purposes, high resolves exist also, or at the least the spark slumbers, which a favouring breath may kindle into a cherishing or a devouring flame. Every individual is, in a sense, a natural product of the people to whom he belongs ; and the brave and good, who so long pined in the dungeons of Naples and of Eome, are a sufficient proof that the op- pression which has lopped the flower, has failed to extirpate the root, of Italian virtue. § 4. For the purposes of intellectual, moral, and especially religious culture, a speech must possess appropriate words for the expression of all mental, ethical and spiritual states and processes, and where such a nomenclature is totally wanting, there /is no depth of depravity which we are not^, authorized to infer from so deplorable a deficiency 156 ETHICAL CHARACTER OF WORDS. Lect. X. of the means of apprehension, reflection, and instruction, concerning the cardinal interests and highest powers and perceptions of humanity. It is in the non-existence of words of this class, that missionaries, and other teachers of Christianity and civilization, have found the most formidable obstacles to the propagation of intellectual and religious light and truth among the heathen. Even the Greek, with all its wealth of words, had, as Wesley long ago observed, no term for the Christian virtue of humility, until the great Apostle framed one for it, and for this the moral poverty of the classic speech compelled him to resort to a root conveying the idea, not of self-abasement in the consciousness of utter unworthiness in the sight of a pure and holy God, but of positive debasement, meanness, and miserable- ness of spirit.* Let us suppose a people cursed with a speech which had no terms corresponding to the ideas of holiness, faith, veneration, conscience, truth, justice, dignity, love, mercy, benevolence, or their contraries. Could its moral teachers frame an ethical system founded on qualities whose very existence their language, and of course the conscious self- knowledge of the people, did not recognize ? Could they enforce the duty of truthfulness in word and deed ; of a reverential deference to what is great and worthy in man ; of love and adoration for the im- measurably higher and better attributes of the Deity ; of charity, of philanthropy, of patience, and of resignation, in a tongue which pos- sessed no terms to denote the moral and the religious virtues ? But even these alone would not render a language an adequate medium for the communication of all moral doctrine. Men must learn to fear, hate and abhor that which is evil, as well as to love and follow after that which is good ; and to this end, the vices, as well as the virtues, must have names by which they can be described and held up as things to be dreaded, loathed and shunned. We regard the Hebrew- Greek diction of the New Testament as eminently plain and simple, and so indeed it is, as compared with the general dialect of Greek litera- ture ; but what a richness of vocabulary does it display with respect to all that concerns the moral, the spiritual, and even the intellectual interests of humanity I What a range of abstract thought,' what an armoury of dialectic weapons, what an enginery of vocal implements for operating on the human soul, do the Epistles of the learned Paul exhibit ! The Gospel of the unschooled John throws forward most conspicuously another phase of language ; for, as Paul appeals to the moral, through the intellectual faculties, John, on the other hand, finds his way to the head by the channel of the heart, and his diction is of course in great part composed of the words which describe or * 1a.treivopoaivri occurs in Acts xx. 19, Eph. iv. 2, Phil. ii. 3, Col. iii. 12. I Pet. v. 5. Lect. X. ETHICAL CHARACTER OF WORDS. 157 excite the sensibilities, the better sympathies of our nature. Now the respective dialects of these two apostles could have existed only as the result of a long course of mental and religious training in the races who used the speech employed by them, and where such training has not been enjoyed, there no such vocabulary can be developed, and of course no such doctrine expressed. Hence the translation of the Bible into the tongues of nations of low moral training has been found a matter of exceeding difficulty, and, in many instances, the translators have been obliged to content them- selves with very loose approximations to the expression of the religious ideas of Christianity, with mere provisional phrases, which they ne- cessarily employ for the time, and until, with more advanced mental culture, there shall grow up also a greater compass of vocabulary, and a fuller development of a dialect suited to convey moral as well as in- tellectual truth. And hence it is that in the propagation of a religion which appeals so powerfully to the thought, the sympathies and the conscience of men, education and Christianization must go hand in hand ; for the teacher cannot reach the heart of his pupil until they have mutually aided each other in creating a common medium, through which they Gan confer on the deep matters of moral and spiritual truth. The French boast that they have no word for Iribe, and hence argue that they are less accessible than other men to that species of official corruption of which a pecuniary, or other material considera- tion, is the reward. But has not the reproach implied in the very word a useful influence in bringing the act to the consciousness of men as a shame and a sin ? Can we fully comprehend the evil cha- racter of a wrong, until we have given it a specific objective existence by assigning to it a name, which shall serve at once to designate and condemn? And do not the jocular pot de vin, and other vague and trivial phrases, by which, in the want of a proper terni to stigma- tize the crime, French levity expresses is, indicate a lack of sensibility to the heinous nature of the transgression, and gloss over, and even half commend, the reception of unlawful fees, as at worst but a venial offence, the disgrace of which lies more in the detection than in the commission ?* §5.1 drew your attention, on a former occasion, to the remarkable * When Justinian negotiated with the Persian ambassador Isdiagunas that shameful convention by which he purchased a truce of five years for two thou- sand pounds of gold, it was at first proposed that the money should be paid in animal instalments of four hundred pounds, but, upon further consideration, it was thought better to pay the whole at once, in order that it migh£ be called a present, rather than a tribute. T& yap aitrxpa ovdfiara, says Procopius, ov t& Trpdy/xara , eidSaffw favOpwiroi 4k tov iiri TrXtiGTov alffxiiveffOau — De Bell. Goth. iv. c. sv. 158 RELIGIOUS TERMS. Leot. JC. completeness of the technical vocabulary of Christianity in Anglo- Saxon, as exemplified in the old translation of the Gospels ; and I think it is much to be regretted that the great English theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not endeavour, at a period when it would have been comparatively easy, to infuse a still larger proportion of the native element into the moral and spiritual nomen- clature they adopted. The extent to which Latin was used in theo- logy by the Saxons themselves, seriously interfered with the formation of a vocabulary adapted to the metaphysics of Christianity, and we must remember that, as Latin was the only common language, and practicable means of communication, between the English Reformers and their teachers and brethren on the Continent, the dialect of the former could hardly fail to be affected by the religious nomenclature of the latter. "We have, nevertheless, and exclusively employ, many remarkable native English words to express the highest and most complex order of religious ideas, and the frequency and familiarity of their use implies an advanced spiritual culture among the primitive English, a philosophical conception of Christian doctrine, and a strong native susceptibility to religious impressions, as well as a remarkable power of apprehending abstruse principles, and of course a high standard of moral and intellectual character. The word atonement, certainly one of the most important terms in the nomenclature of Christianity, is purely English, although its ending is French. The historical evidence is very strongly in favour of the etymology at one, and accordingly the derivative should mean either the reconciliation of man to his Creator, or a oneness of spirit between the two.* But this is not the usual theological sense, and the resemblance between atone and the German Siihne, and several older Gothic roots which involve the notion of expiation, furnishes some reason to suspect that the real origin of the word lies further back, though we cannot trace it to any known Saxon radical. * Robert of Gloucester has at on, in the sense of agreed, reconciled : — " Wat halt it to telle longe 1 bute heo were seppe at on, In gret lone longe y now, wan yt nolde obcr gon." — P. 161. " So that the king & he Were there so at on as hff mizte biae." — P. 509. Many similar examples may be found in other early English writers. I have not observed the noun atonement in any writer before Tyndal (1526), who employs it in Komans v. 11. It is not found in the Wycliffitc versions, I believe. Coverdale (1535) uses it, in Exodus xdx. 33, Leviticus iv. 20, 26, Romans v. 11, and in several other passages. It also occurs in the Life of Edward V., ascribed to Sir Thomas More, in Hardyng's Clwonichs, 1543, p. 476 of Ellis's reprint. Leot. X. VAGUE WORDS. 159 God, good, holy, bad, evil, sin, wicked, right, wrong, love, hate,* hope, wise, true, false, f life, death, soul, heaven, hell, and their many derivatives, are all genuine Anglo-Saxon, as are also many now obsolete words, belonging exclusively to the Christian religion, such as housel, for eucharist, aneal,% to administer extreme unction, though most of the words which Christianity ingrafted upon the religious vocabulary of Judaism, are in modern English represented by deri- vatives from Latin or Greek radicals. § 6. Both the moral and the intellectual characteristics which the prevalence of Christian doctrine has impressed on modern civilized humanity, and the dialect belonging to that doctrine, are so special and peculiar, that the mutual relations between mind, and speech as the expression of mind, and as also a reagent upon it, in all matters connected with religion, are traced without any very serious difficulty, but the reciprocal influence of word and thought in other connexions, is, if not more obscure, at least less familiar. Take for example the tendency, in what are fashionable, and claim to be refined circles, to * What a fine English definition of hate is that which Chaucer gives in the ersones Tale " Hate is old wrathe." It is, however, borrowed from Cicero : — ■ " Odium ira inveterata." — Tusc, Disp. iv. 9. f We cannot perhaps make out an etymological relation between false and any Mceso-Gothic root, unless we connect it with faldan, to fold, Lat. plicare, allied to which are simplex and duplex, whence our simplicity and duplicity. But the word occurs very early in all the Scandinavian and Teutonic languages, and there are several native radicals from either of which it may be supposed to be derived, if indeed we are to believe that the name of so fundamental an idea as that of the false must necessarily be borrowed from any other word. Ihre, in arguing against the etymology from the Latin falsus, regrets that he is obliged to recognize the word as indigenous, and exclaims, " Quam vellem in laudem gentis nostra dici posse, illam mendacia et fallendi artes ne nominare quidem potuisse, antequam id a Latinis didicerit !" — Ihre, Lex. Suio-Goth. under falsk. The comparison of the moral significance of particular words in Anglo-Saxon and English presents many points of interest. A single one shall suffice. Old, which is now a term of reproach, was, strange as it may seem in these fast days of Young England, a respectful and even reverential epithet with the Anglo- Saxons; so much so, in fact, that it was the common designation of noble, exalted, and excellent things. Ealdor was often used for prince, ruler, go- vernor; ealdordom was authority, magistracy, principality: ealdorlic, principal, excellent; ealdor-apostole, chief-apostle; ealdor-burh, chief city or metropolis ; and ealdorman, nobleman. J Ele or £el, the root of the word aneal, is generally considered an Anglo- Saxon radical, but its resemblance in form and meaning to the Latin oleum, or rather to the Greek eAcuoe, renders it probable that the name, as well as the thing {olive oil), found its way from Southern Europe into the Anglo-Saxon and the cognate languages and nations, at so early a period that the history of its introduction can be no longer traced. Housel (A. S. husel) has been sus- pected to be connected with the Latin hostia, but the occurrence of the word hunsl) in Ulphilas seems to be a sufficient refutation of this etymology. 160 VAGUE WORDS. Leci. X. the use of vague and indefinite phrases, not so much to hide a defi- ciency of ideas, as to cover discreet reticences of opinion, or prudent suppressions of natural and spontaneous feeling. The practice of employing these empty sounds — they have no claim to he called words — is founded partly in a cautious desire of avoiding embarrass- ing self-committals, and partly in that vulgar prejudice of polite society, which proscribes the expression of decided sentiments of admiration, approval or dissatisfaction, or of precise and definite opinions upon any subject, as contrary to the laws of good taste, in- dicative of a want of knowledge of the world, and, moreover, arrogant and pedantic. In this notion there is just enough of truth to dis- guise the falsehood of the theory, and to apologize for the mischievous tendencies of the practice. Doubtless, if we have no clear, decided, and well-grounded opinions, no ardour of feeling, and no convictions of duty in reference to the subject of conversation, we should modestly avoid the use of pointed language, and, at the same time, a due regard for the feelings, the prejudices, the ignorance, of others, will dictate a certain reserve and caution in the expression of opinions or sentiments which may wound their pride, or violently shock their But the habit of using vague language at all, and especially the current devices for hinting much while affirming nothing, are in a high degree injurious both to precision and justness of thought, and to sincerity, frankness, and manliness of character. Every vague and uncertain proposition has its false side, and the confusion of thought it implies is not more offensive to good taste, than its decep- tive character to sound morality, and than both to true refinement. § 7. There is a fact of immense moral signifi'ance, which seems to have been only in modern, indeed in comparatively recent times, brought into notice, and made matter of distinct consciousness, though accessible to the observation of men ever since words first had a moral meaning. Its discovery is perhaps connected with the increased attention which individual words, their form and force, have received in the study of the philosophy of language. It is one of those instances where, in the progress of humanity, we come suddenly upon the outcrop of one of those great truths which, like some rock-strata, extend for many days' journey but a few inches beneath the surface, and then burst abruptly into full view.* The fact to which I allude is that language is not a dead, in- elastic, passive implement, but a power, which, like all natural powers, reacts on that which it calls into exercise. It is a psycholo- * Thus the iniquity of the slave-trade was suddenly brought home, us a sin, to the conscience of otherwise good men, who had for many years pursued it, without one reproachful feeling, one thought of its enormous wickedness. Lect. X. REACTION OF WORDS. 161 gical law, though we know not upon what ultimate principle it rests, that the mere giving of verhal utterance to any strong emotion or passion, even if the expression be unaccompanied by any other outward act, stimulates and intensifies the excitement of feeling to that degree that, when the tongue is once set free, the reason is dethroned, and brute nature becomes the master of the man.* The connexion between the apparently insignificant cause and the terrible effect belongs to that portion of the immaterial man, whose workings, in so many fields of moral and intellectual action, he below our consciousness, and can be detected by no effort of volun- tary self-inspection. But it is an undoubted fact, and a fact of whose fearful import most men become adequately aware only when it is almost too late to profit by the knowledge, that the forms in which we clothe the outward expression of the emotions, and even of the speculative opinions, within us, react with mighty force upon the heart and intellect which are the seat of those passions and those thoughts. So long as we have not betrayed by unequivocal words the secret of the emotions that sway the soul, so long as we are uncommitted by formal expressions to particular principles and opinions, so long we are strong to subdue the rising passion, free to modify the theories upon which we aim to fashion our external life. Fiery words are the hot blast that inflames the fuel of our pas- sionate nature, and formulated doctrine a hedge that confines the dis- cursive wandering of the thoughts. In a personal altercation, it is most often the stimulus men give themselves by stinging words, that impels them to violent acts, and in argumentative discussions, we find the most convincing support to our conclusions in the internal echo of the dogmas we have ourselves pronounced. Hence extreme circumspection in the use of vituperative language, and in the adoption of set phrases implying particular opinions, is not less a prudential than a moral duty, and it is equally important that we strengthen in ourselves kindly sympathies, generous impulses, noble aims, and lofty aspirations, by habitual freedom in their expression, and that we confirm ourselves in the great political, social, moral, and religious truths, to which calm investigation has led us, as final con- clusions, by embodying them in forms of sound words. § 8. Although our inherent or acquired moral and intellectual character and tendencies, and our habitual vocabulary and forms of speech, are influential upon each other, and though both are subject * Spenser was not ignorant of this important law : — " But bis enemle Had kindled such coles of displeasure, That the goodman notilde stay his leasure, But home him basted with iuriuus beate, Encreaslng his wrath with many a threate." The Sheithcards Calendar (Februarie), 190--L EKG. LAN. M 162 MODERATION IN LANGUAGE. Lect. X, to the control of the will, yet, nevertheless, their reciprocal action is not usually matter of consciousness with us. While therefore we axe free in the employment of particular sets of words, yet, as the selection of those words depends upon obscure processes, unin- telligible even to ourselves, we cannot be said, in strict propriety of speech, to choose our dialect, though we are undoubtedly responsible for its moral character, because we are responsible for the moral condition which determines it. So limited is our self-knowledge in this respect, that most men would be unable to produce a good cai-icature of their own individual speech, and the shibboleth of our personal dialect is generally unknown to ourselves, however ready we may be to remark the characteristic phraseology of others. It is a mark of weakness, of poverty of speech, or at least of bad taste, to continue the use of pet words, or other peculiarities of language, after we have once become conscious of them as such. In dialect as in dress, individuality, founded upon anything but general harmony and superior propriety, is offensive, and good taste demands that each shall please by its total impression, not by its distinguishable details. ( 163 •) LECTURE XI. VOCABULARY OF THE ENGLISII LANGUAGE. § 1. Professional dialect. § 2. New uses of words. § 3. Special uses of words : Winter, Pecuniary, Chattels. § 4. Corn, Meat, Flesh, § 5. Bribe. § 6. Soldier. § 7. Mystery. § 8. Colloquial corruptions. § 9. Moral corruption of words. IV. § 1. I endeavoured in the last lecture to point out some of the relations between the moral and intellectual character of nations or individuals and the words of a given language employed at parti- cular periods, by the people or the man. But speech is affected also by humbler, more transitory, and more superficial influences, and, whatever care we may exercise in this respect, it is scarcely possible that our ordinary^ discourse should not exhibit indelible traces of the associations and accidents of childhood, as well as of the occupations and the cares, the objects and studies, the rnaterial or social struggles, the triumphs or defeats, and, in short, all the ex- ternal conditions that affect humanity in riper years. Every mode of life, too, has its technical vocabulary, which we may exclude from our habitual language, its cant which we cannot, and hence an acute observer, well sehooled in men and things, can read in a brief casual conversation with strangers much of the history, as well as of the opinions, and the principles of all the interlocutors. Writers of works of fiction are much inclined to represent their characters as constantly employing the language of their calling, and as prone to apply its technicalities to objects of an entirely di- verse nature. Now this may, in the drama, where formal narrative, description and explanation of all sorts are to be avoided, serve as a convenient conventional mode of escaping the asides, the soliloquies, the confidential disclosures of the actor to his audience respecting his character, position, and purposes, and the other awkward devices to which even the expertest histrionic artisans are sometimes obliged to resort, to make the action more intelligible. It is better that a character in a play should use professional phrases, by way of indi- cating his occupation, than that he should tell the audience in set words, "lam a merchant, a physician, or a lawyer," but after all, considered as a representation of the actual language of life, it is a t 64 SPECIAL PHRASEOLOGIES. Lioct. 1\. violation of truth of costume to" cram withtechnical words the con- versation of a technical man.* All 'men, except the veriest, narrowest pedants in their craft, avoid the language of the shop, and a small infusion of native sense of propriety prevents the most ignorant labourer from obtruding the dialect of his art upon those with whom he communicates in reference to matters not pertaining to it. Every man affects to be, if not socially above, yet intellectually independent of and superior to, his calling, and if in this respect his speech bewray him, it will be by words used in mere joke, or by such peculiarities of speech as, without properly belonging to the exercise of his 'pro- fession, have nevertheless been occasioned by it. A sailor will not be likely to interlard his go-ashore talk with clew-lines, main-sheets, and halliards, but if he has occasion to mention the great free port at the head of the Adriatic, he will call it not Trieste, but Tryeast j and if an American speaks of his commercial representative at a maritime town, he will be sure to style that official the American counsel, not the American consul. In fact, classes, guilds, professions, borrow their characteristics of speech from the affectations, not the serious interests, of their way of life. Technical nomenclature rarely extends beyond the sphere to which it more appropriately belongs, and the language of a nation is not perceptibly affected by the phraseology of a class, unless that class is so numerous as to constitute the majority, or unless its interests are of so wide-spread and conspicuous a nature as to be forced upon the familiar ' observation of the whole people. England has been dis- tinguished above all the nations of the earth for commercial enter- prise and mechanical production, but her navigation is confined to the sea-coast, her manufacturing industry to comparatively restricted centres. Of course, so far as foreign trade and domestic fabrics are , concerned, the names of the new objects which they have brought to the notice of all English-born people, have become familiar to all ; but, nevertheless, we do not find that metaphors from the dialect of the sea, or technicalities from the phraseology of the workshop, are much more frequent in the literature or popular speech of England than in those of countries with little navigation or mechanical industry. On the other hand, figures drawn from agriculture, which is universal, and from those arts which, like spinning and weaving, the fishery and the chase, in early stages of society entered into the life of every household, are become essential elements of both the poetical and the every-day dialect of every civilized people. * King James, in his treatise of the Airt of Scottis Poesie, lays down a con- trary rule : — " And finally, quhatsumeuer be zour subiect, to vse vocabula artis, quhairby re may the mail- vivelie represent that persoun, quhais pairt ze paint out."— Chap. iii. Liter. XI. NEW USES OF WORDS. 165 § 2. In language, general effects are produced only by causes general in their immediate operation. Nor is the fact that new- words, originated by causes local in their source and apparently trivial and transitory in action, not unfrequently pass into the com- mon vocabulary of the nation, at all in conflict with this principle, for, in such cases, the general reception of the word is indicative of a general want of it, to express some common idea just making its way into distinct consciousness, and waiting only for a formula, an appropriate mode of utterance. Whenever a people, by emigration into a different soil and climate, by a large influx of foreigners into its territory, by political or reli- gious revolutions, or other great and comprehensive social changes, is brought into contact with new objects, new circumstances, new cares, labours, and duties, it is obviously under the necessity of framing or borrowing new words, or of modifying the received meaning of old- ones, in such way as to express the new conditions of material existence, the new aims and appetencies, to which the change in question gives birth. An illustration may be found in the speech of the United States. At the period when European colonists first took possession of the Atlantic coast of America, natural history had taught men little of the inexhaustible variety of the material creation. The discoverers expected to find the same animals, the same vegetables, the same minerals, and even the same arts, with which observation had made them familiar in corresponding latitudes of the eastern hemisphere. They came therefore prepared to recognize resemblances, not to detect differences, between the products of the old world and those of the new, and naturally saw what they sought and expected. Their early reports accordingly make constant mention of plants, animals, and mechanical processes, as of common occurrence in America, but which we now know never to have existed on that continent. Longer aquaintance with the nature and art of the newly-discovered territory corrected the errors of the first hasty observation ; but there was still, though almost never an identity, yet often a strong analogy, between the trees, the quadrupeds, the fish, and the fowl of England, of Prance, and of Spain, on the one hand, and of Canada, New England, Vir- ginia, and Mexico, on the other. The native names for all these objects were hard to pronounce, harder still to remember, and the colonists, therefore, took the simple and obvious method of applying to the native products of America the names of the European plants and animals which most nearly resembled them. Thus, we have the oak, the pine, the poplar, the willow, the fir, the beech, and the ash ; the trout, the perch, and the dace ; the hear, the fox, and the rabbit ; the pigeon, the partridge, the robin, and the sparrow ; and in South America, the lion and the ostrich ; and yet, though th? 166 SPECIAL USES OF WORDS. Leot. XI, American and the European objects designated by these namea in many instances belong to the same genus, and are only distinguished by features which escape all eyes but those of the scientific naturalist, in perhaps none are they specifically identical, while, not unfre- quently, the application of the European name is founded on very slight resemblances. Since the Norman Conquest, English, as spoken upon its native soil, has been largely exposed to but one of the causes of change which I have noticed. I refer, of course, to the great religious revo- lution of the sixteenth century, which I believe to be • the' most powerful of the single influences that have concurred to give to the English race and their speech the character which now distinguishes them, as well from the rest of the world as from their former selves. At the same time, in all the Gothic languages, our own included, both the special vocabulary of each, and the use and signification of the words they possess in common, have been much affected by other causes, partly peculiar to one or more, partly acting alike upon all. § 3. Take as an instance the word winter. When Icelandic was spoken in all the countries of Scandinavia, time was computed by winters, because in those cold climates the winter monopolized a large portion of the year, and from its length, its hardships and necessities, its boisterous festivities, the facilities it afforded for the pursuit of certain important occupations and favourite sports, and the obstacles it interposed to the prosecution of others, it impressed itself on the minds of the people as not only the longest, but the weightiest portion of the twelvemonth, and it therefore stood for the whole year. For the same reason, winter was a very common word for year in Anglo-Saxon, and it continued to be employed in that sense in English to near the close of the fifteenth century. In Iceland itself, where there is little change in the habits of material and social life, it is still thus used. But in modern England, Den- mark, Sweden and Norway, the advancement of civilization and physical improvement has given to man the mastery over all the seasons. The campaigns of feudal warfare, whose marches were per- formed with greater ease over ice and snow, have ceased ; the chase, a winter occupation, is no longer an important resource ; agriculture has widely extended her domain, and the harvest months are the great epoch of the year, and characterize it as a period of trial or of blessings. Accordingly, in all these kingdoms men now count time not by winters, but by harvests, for that is the primitive signification of our English word year, and its representative in the cognate lan- guages.* In the figurative style, whether in poetry or in prose, we * I am aware that this is not the received etymology of year, nor do I pro- pose it with by any means entire confidence. At the same time, I think the Lect. XI. "CORN," "MEAT," "FLESH." 16? often put a season for the year, and in this case the subject deter- mines the choice of the season. Thus, of an aged man we say, " His life has extended to a hundred winters," but in speaking of the years of a blooming girl, we connect with them images of gladness, the season of flowers, and say, " She has seen sixteen summers." We have in English a similar application of another familiar word suggestive of the phases of the year, and it is curious that the same expression is used in Scandinavia. In Denmark and Sweden, as well as in England, the gentlemen of the chase and the turf reckon the age of their animals by springs, the ordinary birth-season of the horse, and a colt is said to be so many years old next grass. Our adjective pecuniary is familiarly known to be derived from the Latin pecunia, money, which itself comes from pecus, cattle, and acquired the meaning of money, because money is the representative of property, and in early society cattle constituted the most valuable species of property ; or, as others suppose, because a coin, which was of about the average value of one head of sheep or kine, was stamped with the image of the creature. Our English word cattle is derived, by a reverse process, from the Low-Latin c a t a.l 1 a , a word of unknown etymology, signifying moveable property generally, or what the English law calls chattels. In Old English, cattle had the same meaning, and it is but recently that it has been confined to domestic quadrupeds as the most valuable of ordinary moveable pos- sessions.* § 4. In a former lecture, by way of illustrating my views of the value of etymology as pursued by what may be called the simple historical, in distinction from the more ambitious linguistic, method, I traced the word grain from its source, through its secondary, to its present signification, in one of its senses. Corn, the Gothic etymo- logical equivalent of grain, has also an interesting history, and it serves as a good exemplification of the modifications which the use and meaning of words undergo from the influence of local conditions. Like granum, it signifies both a seed and a minute particle, and the two words are not so unlike in form as to make it at all im- dentity of the words for harvest and for the twelvemonth, a r , in the cognate Icelandic and the dialects derived from it, an argument of considerable weight in support of the derivation, which, however, finds still stronger evidence in the analogies of our primitive mother-tongue. In Anglo-Saxon, ear signifies an ear of grain, and by supplying the collective prefix g e , common to all the Teutonic languages, we have gear, an appropriate expression for harvest, and at the same time a term which, as well as winter, was employed as the name of the entire year. The corresponding words in the cognate languages admit of a similar de- rivation, and this to me seems a more probable etymology than those by which these words are connected with remoter roots. See Notes and Illustrations (Aj, On the Etymaioyy of ' Harrest.' * See Notes and Illustrations (B), On the Etymology of ' Cattle' 1 08 SPECIAL USES OF WORDS. Lect. XI. probable that they are derived from a common radical, in some older cognate language, allied to the verb to grow, and originally meaning seed. Corn was early applied, as a generic term, to the cereal grains or breadstuffs, the most useful of seeds, and in fact almost the only ones regularly employed as the food of man. The word is still cur- rent in all countries where the Gothic languages are spoken, but its signification is, in popular use, chiefly confined to the particular grain most important in the rural economy of each. Thus in England, wheat, being the most considerable article of cultivated produce, is generally called corn. In most parts of Germany this name is given to rye ; in the Scandinavian kingdoms, to barley ; and in the United States, tu the great agricultural staple, maize, or Indian corn ; the name in every instance being habitually applied to the particular grain on which the prosperity of the husbandman and the sustenance of the labourer chiefly depend. In the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and in other warm climates, animal food is not much used, and bread is emphatically the staff of life. Hence in those nations, as with the ancient Bomans, the word oread stands for food generally, other edibles being con- sidered a mere relish or accompaniment, and this is still true of some colder climates, where the poverty of the labouring classes confines them in the main to a like simple diet. The English figurative use of bread for the same purpose, however, is not founded on the habits of the people, but is borrowed from other literatures. The word meat has undergone a contrary process. The earliest occurrence of this word in any cognate language is the form mats ii Ulphilas, where it signifies food in general. The Swedish verb iriatta, to satiate or satisfy, and other allied words, suggest the probability that the original sense of the radical, in its application to food, was that which satisfies hunger,* though it must be confessed that great un- certainty attends all attempts to trace back words essentially so primitive to still simpler forms and less complex significations. The Anglo-Saxon and oldest English meaning of meat is food, and I believe it is always used in that sense in our English translations of the Bible. In England, and especially in the United States, animal food is now the most prominent article of diet, and meat has come to signify almost exclusively the flesh of land animals. The primitive abundance of the oak and of nut-bearing trees in England, and the northern portions of Continental Europe, facilitated * TheMoeso-Gothic m at j an, to eat, is more probably a derivative, than the primitive, of mats, and, if so, corresponds to our verb to feed upon. On the other hand, the resemblance between matjan and the Latin masticare would seem to refer both verbs and their derivatives to a root expressive of the mecha- nical process of eatinjt Iject.XI. CHANGES OF MEANING— "BRIBE." 169 the keeping of swine to an extent which, now that the forests have been converted into arable land, is neither convenient nor economi- cally advantageous, and the flesh of swine constituted a more im- portant part of the aliment of the people than that of any other domestic animal. The word flesh appears to have originally signified pork only, and in the form, a flitch of bacon, the primitive sense is still preserved, but, with the extension of agriculture, the herds of swine became less numerous, and as the flesh of other quadrupeds entered more and more into use, the sense of the word was extended so as to include them also. Flesh and meat have now become nearly synonymous, the difference being, that the former embraces the fibrous part of animals generally, without reference to its uses, the latter that of such only as are employed for human food. At present we use, as a compendious expression for all the materials of both vege- table and animal diet, bread and meat. Piers Ploughman says : *' Flesshe and breed bothe To riche and to poore ; " and a verse or two lower, " And all manere of men That through mete and drynke libbeth." § 5. The English word bribe and its derivatives, generally, but perhaps erroneously, traced to the French bribe, a morsel of bread, a scrap or fragment, present an interesting instance of a change of meaning. Bribery, in old English, meant not secret corruption, but theft, rapine, open violence, and very often official extortion. Thus Julyana Bemers, in her treatise of ' Fysshynge with the Angle,' in speaking of the injustice and cruelty of robbing private fish-ponds and other waters, says : " It is a ryght shamefull dede to any noble- man to do that that theuys and brybours done." Lord Bemers, in his translation of Proissart, describes the captain of a band of the irregular soldiery called ' Companions,' as the " greatest brybour and robber in all Fraunce," and Palsgrave gives I pull and I pyll as synonyms of / bribe. At that dark period, the subject had "no rights which " his rulers " were bound to respect." The ministers of civil and ecclesiastical power needed not to conceal their rapacity, and they availed themselves of the authority belonging to their positions for the purpose of undisguised plunder. But when by the light, first of religious, and then of what naturally followed, civil liberty, men were able to see that it was of the essence of law, that it should bind the governors as well as the governed, him who makes, him who administers, and him who serves under it, alike, it became necessary for official robbery to change its mode of procedure, and mantle with the cloak of secrecy the hand that clutched the spoil. 170 SPECIAL USES OF -WORDS. Lect. XI. But though the primitive form of this particular iniquity is gone, the thing remains, and the unlawful gains of power, once seized with strong hand, or extorted with menacing clenched fist, but now craved with open palm, are still bribes. Formerly the official extortioner or rapacious dignitary was styled a briber, and he was said to bribe when ne boldly grasped his prey, but now the tempter is the briber, and the timid recipient is the bribed* §6. Soldier, from the Latin solidus,t the name of a coin, meant originally one who performed military service, not in fulfil- ment of the obligations of the feudal law, but upon contract, and for stipulated pay. Soldier, therefore, in its primary signification, is identical with hireling or mercenary. But the regular profession of arms is held to be favourable to the development of those generous and heroic traits of character which, more than any of the gentler virtues, have in all ages excited the admiration of men. Hence, since standing armies, composed of troops who serve for pay, have afforded to military men the means of a systematic professional training, including the regular cultivation of the traits in question, we habitually ascribe to the soldier qualities precisely the reverse of those which we connect with the terms hireling and mercenary, and though the words are the etymological equivalents of each other soldier has become a peculiarly honourable designation, while hire- ling and mercenary are employed only in an offensive sense. § 7. We may find in the cognate languages examples of changes of meaning dependent upon the same principles as these illustra- tions. Among the articles of merchandize supplied to the population of Denmark and Norway by the Hanse towns, during the commer- cial monopoly they so long enjoyed, one of the most important was common pepper, and the clerks in the Hanse trading factories in the * Cranmer, Instruction into Christian Religion, Sermon VII., uses bribe in the modern sense: " And the iudge himselfe is a thefe before God, when he for brybes or any corrupcion doth wittingly and wyllingly give wrong iudgement." But, in Sermon X., he has this passage : " These rauenynge woulfes, that be euer thrystnyge after other mennes goodes .... lese the fauoure both of God and man, and ar called of eueiy man extortioners, brybers, pollers and piellers, deuourers of widowes houses." And in the Instruction of Prayer, on the Fourth Petition, " But they that delyght in superfluitie of govgyous apparel and deynty fare .... commenly do deceaue the nedye, brybe, and pyle from them." t Etymologists of the Celtic school affirm that soldat is from the Celtic souldar, a feudal vassal bound to military service, and from soldat they derive the French solde and solder, and the German Sold, besolden; that is, they find the origin of a group of words, to every one of which the notion of pay is fundamental, in a word the proper sense of which excludes that notion, for the very essence of feudal obligation is that it requires service vHtltout pay. Lucus a non lucendo. I.ect. XI. "MISTER" AND "METIER." 171 Scandinavian seaports were popularly called Pebersvende, pepper-boys. By the general regulations of the Hanse towns, these clerks were obliged to remain unmarried, and hence Pebersvend, pepper-boy, became, and is still, the regular Danish word for single man, or old bachelor. The herring-fishery was long the most lucrative branch of the maritime industry of Holland, and was the means by which a large number of the inhabitants of that country acquired their livelihood. Nering, = German Nahrung, in Dutch signifies properly nourishment, sustenance, and, figuratively, the business or occupa- tion by which men earn their bread. The importance of the pursuit of which we have just spoken made it emphatically the n e r i n g , or vocation of the Dutch seamen, and ter nering varen means to go on a fishing-cruise. The common English and American designation of bookselling and booksellers as the trade is a similar instance. The Greek /ivarripwv meant originally the secret doctrines and ceremonies connected with the worship of particular divinities. In the middle ages, the most difficult and delicate processes of many of the mechanical arts were kept religiously secret, and hence in all the countries of Europe those arts were themselves called mysteries, as mechanical trades still are in the dialect of the English law. Thus, when a boy is apprenticed to a tanner or a shoemaker, the legal instrument, or indenture, by which he is bound, stipulates that he shall be taught the art and mystery of tanning or shoemaking. Afterwards, mystery came to designate, in common speech, any regular occupation, so that a man's mystery was his trade, his em- ployment, the profession by which he earned his bread,* and as men are most obviously classed and characterized by their habitual occu- pations, the question which so often occurs in old English writers, "What mister wight is that?" means, what is that man's employ- ment, and, consequently, condition in life ? — what manner of man is he ? In French, the word has had a different history. From mysterium, in the sense of a trade or art, comes metier, of the same signification,! and because, in certain provinces, the art of weaving was the most important and gainful of the mechanic arts, first weaving, and then the implement by which it is exercised, received by way of excellence the name metier, which now sig- nifies a loom.% * " In youthe he lerned hadde a good mistere, He was a wel good wright, a carpentere." Prol. to Canterbury Tales. t See Notes and Illustrations (C), Etymology of ' Mister ' and ' Metier.' J Another example is supplied by the change of meaning in the Latin word species. See Notes and Illustrations (D). 172 COLLOQUIAL CORRUPTIONS. Lect. XI. § 8. I have alluded to the remarkable fact, that words, like ma- terial substances, are changed, worn out, exhausted of their meaning, and at last rendered quite unserviceable, by long use. To this law, both their form and their signification are subject. In here speak- ing of form, I do not refer to grammatical changes of ending and inflexions, which will be the subject of future lectures, and which are in a great measure due to other causes, but to modifications pro- duced by that negligence of treatment which is the result of close familiarity with any object. Examples of this are the abbreviated and otherwise mutilated pet names, by which servants, children, and intimate associates, are called. It may be laid down as a general rule, that words most frequently employed are hastily and carelessly pronounced, and that, in inflected languages, they are, with very few exceptions, irregular in form. In this way often grows up, a dis- tinction between the written and the spoken languages, which, in some cases, is carried so far that the formal rules of pronunciation observed by the best speakers in conversation, and in reading or in set discourse, are so different as almost to amount to a difference of dialect, and while he who reads as he speaks would shock by the vulgarity, another, who speaks as he reads, would scarcely less offend the hearer by the pedantic formality of his enunciation. In English, a distinction of this sort is not obligatory, but tolerated, and it is very commonly practised, though, among educated persons, not to such an extent as in some of the Continental languages. Thus, don't is very commonly used for do not, and, by careless speakers, even for does not ; J'U and you'll, I'd and you'd, for 1 will, you will, I wovld, and you would ; isn't, arn't, haven't, and won't, for is not, are not, liave not, and will not. Indeed, we too often hear, in the conversation of persons from whom we have a right to expect better things, such sad distortions of words as haint and aint, and 1 am sorry to say that Charles Lamb has even committed this last transgression in writing, in one of his familiar letters to Coleridge. So long as departures from grammatical propriety of speech are merely allowable collo- quialisms, not recognized changes in the normal form of words, they come rather within the jurisdiction of social authority; they are questions of manner, like the set phrases of complimentary saluta- tion, and not entitled to consideration as exemplifications of the law of progress and revolution to which all human language is subject. Such licenses of speech rest on no ascertainable principle. I shall, therefore, not inquire into their essential linguistic character, or the extent to which they may be indulged in without infringing the laws of good taste, and I will dismiss them with the simple remark that they are substantially corruptions of language, and therefore to be employed as sparingly as possible. § 9. The changes of signification which words undergo in aU Lect. Xt. MORAL CORRUPTION OF WORDS. 173 languages, from mere exhaustion by use, is a far more extensive and important subject. " Karnes and words," says Robertson, " soon lose their meaning. In the process of years and centuries, the meaning dies off them, like the sun-light from the hills. The hills are there, the colour is gone." It is melancholy to reflect that such changes in the signification of words are almost always for the worse. A word unfamiliar and dignified in one century, becomes common and indif- ferent in the next, trivial and contemptible in a third, and this degradation of meaning is too often connected with a moral decline in the people, if it does not flow from it. " That decay in the meaning of words," observes the same admirable sermonizer whom I have just quoted, " that lowering of the standard of the ideas for which they stand, is a certain mark [of the decay of elevated national feeling]. The debasement of a language is a sure mark of the debasement of a nation ; the insincerity of a language, of the insincerity of a nation ; for a time comes when words no longer stand for things; when names are given for the sake of a euphonious sound ; and when titles are but the epithets of an unmeaning courtesy." The thorough investigation of the principles of these changes would require more of psychological discussion, and a more abstruse vein of argument, than can fitly find place in a series of unmetho- dical and unscientific discourses, and I shall content myself with offering a couple of familiar illustrations, which may of themselves suggest important principles of language in its relation to ethics, without attempting to expound them. Let us take the adjective respectable. Respectable was originally, and in French, to the honour of that nation, still is, a term of high commendation, and was scarcely inferior in force, though not precisely equivalent in significa- tion, to admirable in our present use of that word. At a later period it implied an inferior degree of worth, little above mediocrity, and now, with reference to intellect and morality, it has come to mean barely not contemptible, while, popularly, it is applied to every man whose pecuniary means raise him above the necessity of manual drudgery. Thus, in a celebrated criminal trial in England, when a witness was asked why he applied the epithet to a person of whom he had spoken as a " respectable man," he said it was because he kept a horse and gig. So the much-abused term gentleman. This word originally meant, and still does in the French from which we borrowed it, not, as Webster supposes, a gentle or genteel man, but a man born of a noble family, or gens, as it was called in Latin. Persons of this rank usually possessed means to maintain an outward show of superior elegance, and leisure to cultivate the graces of social life, so that in general they were distinguished above the labouring classes by a more prepossessing exterior, greater refinement of manners, and a more 1?4 THE WORD "GENTLEMAN." Ieot. XI. tasteful dress. As their wealth and legal privileges diminished with the increasing power and affluence of the citizens of the trading towns, there was a gradual approximation, in both social position and civil rights, between the poorer gentleman and the richer burgesses, until at last they were distinguished by nothing but family names, as indicative of higher or lower origin. The term gentleman was now applied indiscriminately to all persons who kept up the state and observed the social forms which had once been the exclusive characteristics of elevated rank. Theoretically, elegance of manner and attainment in the liberal arts should imply refinement of taste, generosity of spirit, nobleness of character, and these were regarded as the moral attributes specially belonging to those possessed of the outward tokens by which the rank was recognized. The advance- ment of democratic principles in England and America, has made rapid progress in abolishing artificial distinctions of all sorts. Every man claims for himself, and popular society allows to him, the right of selecting his own position, and consequently in those countries every man of decent exterior and behaviour assumes to be a gentle- man, in manners and in character, and, in the ordinary language of life, is both addressed and described as such. It is much to the credit of England, that popular opinion in a remote age attached higher importance to the moral than to the material possessions of the gentleman, and accordingly we find that as early as the reign of Edward III. the word had already acquired the meaning we now give it, when we apply to it the best and highest sense of which it is susceptible. In Chaucer's ' Eomaunt of the Eose ' there occurs a passage well illustrating this feeling, and it is worth remarking that the original ' Eoman de la Eose,' of which Chaucer's ' Eomaunt ' is an admirable but improved translation, con- tains no hint of the generous and noble sentiments expressed by the English poet, respecting the superiority of moral worth and the social virtues over ancestral rank. " But understand in thine entent That this is not mine entendement, To clepe no wight in no ages Onely gentle for his linages ; But who so is vertuous And in his port not outrageous, When such one thou seest thee heforae, Though he be not gentle borne, Thou maiest well saine this in soth, That he is gentle because he doth As longeth to a gentleman. " To villaine speech in no degree Let never thy lippe unbounden bee : For I nought hold him, in good faith, Curteis, that fbule wordes saith j Lkct. XI. WANTON ABUSE OF WORDS. 175 And all women serve and preise. And to thy power hir honour reiso. And if that any mis-sayere Despise women, that thou maist here, Blame him, and bid him hold him still. " Maintaine thy selfe after thy ient, Of robe and eke of garment, For many sithe, faire clothing A man amendeth in much thing. Of shoone and bootes, new and Taire, Looke at the least you have a paire, And that they sit so fetously, That these rude may utterly Marvaile, sith that they sit so plaine, How they come on or off againe. Weare streight gloves, with aumere Of silke : and alway with good chere Thou yeve, if thou have richesse, And if thou have nought, spend the lesse." The wanton abuse of words by writers in the department of popular imaginative literature has been productive of very serious injury in language and in ethics. The light ironical tone of persiflage, in which certain eminent authors of this class habitually indulge, has debased our national speech, and proved more demoralizing in its tendency than the open attacks of some of them upon Christianity, its ministers, and its professors, or the fatuity with which others endow all their virtuous characters, and the vice, selfishness, and corruption which they ascribe to all their personages whom they do not make idiots. By such writers, a blackguardly boy is generally spoken of as a " promising young gentleman;" an abandoned villain or a successful swindler, as a " respectable personage; " a vulgar and ignorant woman, as a "graceful and accomplished lady." Had these authors contented themselves with pillorying the pet vulgarisms of the magazine and the newspaper, they would have rendered a great service to literature and to morals, but when the only words we possess to designate the personifications of honour, virtue, manhood, grace, generosity and truth, are systematically applied to all that is contemptible and all that is corrupt, there is no little danger that these high qualities will, in popular estimation, share in the debase- ment to which their proper appellations are subjected. It is difficult to suppose that the authors of works evincing great knowledge of the world, who habitually profane the name of every attribute that men have held great and reverend, really believe in the existence of such attributes. A man, who accustoms himself to speak of a low-minded and grovelling person as a gentleman, either has no just conception of. the character which this word professes to describe, or does not believe in the possibility of it ; and the admiring readers of such a 176 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lect. XL writer will end by adopting his incredulity, and renouncing the effort to develope and cultivate qualities which, in every virtuous commu- nity, have formed the highest objects of a noble social ambition. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. Etymology op Harvest. (Seep. 167.) Dr. Guest proposes the following etymology for Harvest {Trans, of Phi- lological Society ', vol. v. p. 172) : — "Starting with the hypothesis that the Germans received their knowledge of Roman civilization chiefly through the medium of the Gauls, we need not feel surprise if the word harvest should take the form of a Celtic compound. In the Breton the substantive est or cost (which is clearly a corruption of Au- gustus) signifies both harvest and autumn, and the verb eost-a means ' to reap.' There is also a Breton compound debenn~eost, which likewise signifies both harvest and autumn ; and as the verb debenn-a means to lop, to top trees, this compound seems to allude to the opera- tion of reaping — to the cutting off the cars of corn. That harv-est and debenn- cost were compounds ejusdem generis, the writer was fully persuaded, long before he was able to make out the first element of the compound harv-est. Though now obsolete, this element seems to have been long preserved in the Irish, for Riley gives us arbha, corn, as a word occurring in Irish MSS. of no very great antiquity. We may therefore look upon harvest as a Celtic compound signifying the corn-reaping, and as having been borrowed by the Germans as soon as they felt the necessity of having a special name for the season, the importance of which had not sufficiently forced itself upon their attention in the time of Tacitus." — Ed.] B. Etymology of Cattle. (Seep. 167.) The derivation from caput (ca pi- talc), a head t as we say, "so many head of sheep, or oxen," though sup- ported by high authorities, is improba- ble ; because, among other reasons, the words, chatel, oatalla (pi.), &c, were applied to what lawyers call chattels real, that is, certain rights in real estate distinct from the fee, or absolute title, and to personal property in general, long before cattle, or any other derivative from the same root, was used specially as a designation of domestic quadrupeds. This view of the subject is confirmed by the fact of the non-existence of a cognate word with the meaning of cattle in the Italian and Spanish languages, which could hardly have failed to possess it, had it been really of Latin etymology. Chatel has an apparent relation- ship both to the French aoheter, to purchase, and to the Saxon ce&pian, Icelandic kaupa, German kaufen, of the same signification. Celtic etymologists derive acheter from the Celtic achap, a word of the same radical meaning ; but as the Goths, in early ages, were a much more com- mercial and maritime people than the Celts, it is more probable that the root is Gothic than Celtic. Capitale, chatel, acheter, chattels and cattle, are, therefore, in all probability, cognate with the Saxon c e & p i a n , and not with caput. Schmid, Oesetze dor Angcl-Sachsen, 2d edition, 1858, Glossary, under Capi- tale, appears to adopt this etymology. (See Wedowood, Etym. Did., art Chattels.) Lect. XI. " MISTER " AND " METIER.' 177 C. Etymology op Mister and Metier. (See page 171.) The etymology in the text (from mysterium) seems to me more pro- bable than the usual one, which derives mister and metier from the Latin ministerium, because the n in ministerium is radical, and in such combinations is generally, though indeed not universally, retained in French and English derivatives. The earliest in- stance I have met with of the use of this word in English (or semi-Saxon), is in the extracts from the * Rule of Nuns ' in the Reliquiee Antiques, vol. ii. p. 2 : " Marthe meostor is to fede povre," where indeed the sense favours the de- rivation from ministerium. The old French and English maistrie, craft, art, science, probably from the Latin m a - gister (magisterium), and mister, resemble each other in use and meaning, and the three words, mister, maistrie, and mystery are so nearly alike in form, that they might readily be confounded in signification. The Spanish menester, need or necessity, is doubtless from ministerium, and the English mister, used in that sense, must probably be re- ferred to the same source, but the signi- fication of necessity is so remote from that of occupation, that it seems more reasonable to adopt a separate etymology for each. Halliwell even derives mistery or mystery, in the sense of an occupation, from mister. D. The word Species. Few words have undergone greater and more" varied changes of meaning | than the Latin species. Species is derived from spec io, an old verb signifying, I see. Species, then, is that which is seen, the visible form of an object. But things are known and distinguished most frequently by their visible forms, and related things have like forms. Hence, among other senses, species acquired that of kind, or natural class, which is its present most usual import. It was then popularly applied to designate the different kinds or classes of merchandise, and as the drugp, perfumes, and condiments of the East were the most important articles of merchandise, they were called, par ex- cellence, species, speziein Italian, 6 p i c e s in French, spices in English, and an apothecary is still termed s p e z i a 1 e in Italy, his shop a spezieria, his drugs spezierie. Again, specie t>* is the visible form of a thing, as dis tinguished from that which symboli- cally, or conventionally, represents it, and hence, when notes of governments, banks, or individuals were brought into use as representatives of money, pay- ments in actual coin were said to be payments in specie, in contradistinc- tion from payments in the conventional equivalent of money, and specie now means gold and silver coin. It is curious that when s p e z i e , the common term for different kinds of mer- chandise, was restricted in Italy to drugs and spices, as the most important of them, genere or genero (Latin genus), a group or assemblage of species, took its place as a general de- signation of vendible wares, and is now used for goods, as genericoloniali, colonial, or, as the Americans say, "West India, goods. ► W/cliffe u«s " epecies " in the sense of " visible form : n — . . havynge solhli the spies [or licnessc] of pite, fonothe denyinge the vertu of it." Wyei., 8 Ttrn. Hi. 5 ENG. IAN. ( 173 LECTURE XII. TIIE VOCABULARY OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. § 1. Changes of language. § 2. Permanence of words : conservative in- fluence of the authorized version of the Bible, of Shakespeare, and Milton. § 3. Changes in vocabulary: loss of words. § 4. Introduction of new words. § 5. Suspended animation of words. § 6. Introduction of a new ward fatal to an old one. § 7. Dialect of periodicals. V. § 1. The advocates of the theory which regards language as wholly arbitrary, artificial, and conventional, as a thing of human invention, not of divine origin or of spontaneous growth, may find in its mutability a specious, though by no means a conclusive, argument in support of that doctrine. For things organic, products of the laws of nature, tend altogether to the repetition of their typical forms. If changed at all in sensible characteristics, the process of their transfor- mation is extremely slow, and they exhibit a perpetual inclination to revert to the primitive type, as often as the disturbing or modifying influences are withdrawn, or even weakened in their action. Human contrivances, institutions, systems, on the contrary, are subject to incessant change, nor have they any inherent tendency to return to the original form, but, as they recede from the starting point, they continually diverge more and more widely from the initial direction. The physical characteristics of animal races, and of the spontaneous vegetable products of the soil, are constant, so long as they remain unmixed in descent and subject to the same climatic and nutritive influences ; but in the progress of centuries, man's laws, his institu- tions and modes of life, all, in short, that is essentially of his invention or voluntary adoption, and especially his language, undergo such radical revolutions, that little apparently remains to attest his relationship to his remote progenitors. But the law of adherence and return to original type, if not confined to lower organisms, is greatly restricted in its application to more elevated races and forms. Man himself, the most exalted of earthly existences, seems almost wholly exempt from its operation ; and the varieties of his external structure, once established, per- petuate themselves with little discoverable inclination to revert to any known common and primitive model of the species. Man's I-ect. XII. CHANGES OF LANGUAGE. 170 language is higher than himself, move spiritual, more ethereal, and still less subject than he to the jurisdiction of the laws of material nature. We have therefore no right to expect to find speech return- ing to primeval unity, until the realization of those dreams which predict the complete subjugation of material nature, the consequent equalization, or at least compensation, of her gifts to different portions of the earth's surface, the perfectibility of man, and his union in one great universal commonwealth. There are well-ascertained facts which seem to show that words, with all their mutability, are still subject to a law of reversion like other products of material life ; and if the distinction which many grammarians make between technically modem and ancient languages is well founded, and the common tendencies ascribed to the former are inherent, and not accidental, we must refer them to the operation of a principle as general and as impe- rative as that by which the double flowers of our gardens are brought back to their original simplicity of structure, by neglect and self-pro- pagation.* But it is as yet too early to pronounce upon the ultimate form of language, and we are hardly better able to foresee what centuries may bring forth in the character of speech, than to prophesy what con- figuration of surface and what forms of animal life will mark our earth in future geological periods. Modes of verbal modification, mutations of form, indeed, we can readily trace back so far as written memorials exist, and the course of change is sometimes so constant for a certain period, that we can predict, with some confidence, what phase a given living language will next present. These observations, however, respect more particularly the syntax, the inflexions, the proportions of native and foreign roots, and other general characteristics of speech. Special changes of vocabulary can frequently be explained after they have once happened, but very seldom foretold, and words sometimes disappear altogether and are lost for ever, or, like some stars, suddenly rise again to view, and resume their old place in both literature and the colloquial dialect, without any discoverable cause for either their occultation or their emergence. The only portion of the English vocabulary that can be said to be altogether stable consists of those Saxon words which describe the arts and modes of life common to all ages and countries, the specific names of natural products whose cha- racter is unchanging, and of their parts and members, and those also of the natural wants and universal passions of man. The nomencla- ture of the more refined arts and professions, and, in general, the alien words which have entered into the language of literature and polished society, are, on the other hand, subject, not indeed like native words, to a law of development and growth, but to perpetual change, frequent rise and decay. * See Lecture XVII. 180 PERMANENCE OF WORDS. Lect. XH. § 2. I alluded on a former occasion to the conservative influence of our great writers, and especially of the standard translation of the Bible. The dialect of that translation belongs to an earlier phase of the language, and it far more resembles the English of the century- preceding than of its own contemporary literature. Nevertheless, of the somewhat fewer than six thousand words it contains, scarcely two hundred are now in any sense obsolete, or substantially altered in meaning, whereas most of the new or unfamiliar words which it sanctioned have fairly established themselves in our general vocabu- lary, in spite of the attacks which have been so often made and repeated against them. It would, however, not be fair to compare the language of the English Bible with the dialect of the present day by the individual words alone. The real difference is not wholly in single words, not even in the meaning of them separately considered, but also in combinations of words, phraseological expressions, idioms, or rather idiotisms. The translators of 1611 borrowed many of these from older versions, whose dialect was going out of use, and they now constitute the portion of the authorized Bible which must be regarded as obsolescent. Take, for instance, the expression " much people." This was once grammatically correct, for the following reasons : People and folk (as well as the Saxon equivalent of the latter, folc), in the singular form, usually meant, in Old English, a political state, or an ethnologically related body of men, considered as a unit, in short a nation, and both people and folk took the plural form when used in a plural sense, just as nation now does. Nation is indeed found in the Wycliffite versions, but it rarely occurs, and puple or folk in the singular, puplis and folkis in the plural, are generally used where we now employ nations. In Tyndale's time, nation had come into more general use, while people was losing its older signification, and was seldom employed in a plural sense, still more rarely in a plural form. In the translation of 1611, I believe the plural is found but twice, both instances of its occurrence being in the Revelation. Many is essentially plural, and there is a syn- tactical solecism in applying it to a noun which itself does not admit of a plural. While therefore the word was hovering between the sense of nation, which may be multiplied, and that of an aggregation of persons, which may be divided, it was natural, and at the same time syntactically right, to say much, rather than many, people. King James's translators, in this, as in many other points, employed the language of the preceding century, not of their own, for in the secular literature of their time people had settled down into its pre- sent signification, and conformed to modern grammatical usage. An examination of the vocabulary of Shakespeare will show that out of the fifteen thousand words which compose it, not more than about five or six hundred have gone out of currency, or changed their Lect. XII. CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 181 meaning ; and of these, some, no doubt, are misprints ; some, borrowed from obscure provincial dialects ; and some, words for which there is no other authority, and which probably never were recognized as English. In the poetical works of Milton, who employs about eight thousand words, there are not more than one hundred which are not as familiar at this day as in that of the poet himself. In fact, scarcely any thing of Milton's poetic diction has become obsolete, except some un- English words and phrases of his own coinage, and which failed to gain admittance at all. On the other hand, the less celebrated authors of the same period, including Milton himself as a proso writer, employ, not hundreds, but thousands of words, utterly un- known to all save the few who occupy themselves with the study of the earlier literature of England. One might almost say that the little volume of Bacon's Essays alone contains as large a number of words and phrases no longer employed in our language, as the whole of Milton's poetical works. English, composed as it is of inharmonious and jarring elements, is, more than any other important tongue, exposed to perpetual change from the fermentation of its yet unassimilated ingredients, and it there- fore has always needed, and still needs, more powerful securities and bulwarks against incessant revolution than other languages of less heterogeneous composition. The three great literary monuments, the English Bible, Skakespeare, and Milton, fixed the syntax of the sacred and the secular dialects in the forms which they had already taken, and perpetuated so much of the vocabulary as entered into their composition. It is true there are Continental authors of the seven- teenth century, Pascal for instance, whose style and diction are as far from being antiquated as those of the English classics I have mentioned. Doubtless the great literary merits of Pascal, and the profound interest of the subjects he discusses, did much to give fixed- ness and stability to the dialect which serves as the vehicle of his keen satire and powerful reasoning, but we cannot ascribe to him so great a conservative influence as to the masterpieces of English literature, because, though French shares in the general causes of linguistic change which are common to all Christendom, it has not the same special tendencies to fluctuation as our more composite speech. Such, in fact, was the unstable character of English during the century which preceded Shakespeare, that, but for the influence of the Reformation and of the three great lodestars we have been considering, it would probably have become, before our time, rather Romance than Gothic in its vocabulary, as well as much less Saxon in its syntax. § 3. The operation of the numerous causes which contribute to the introduction of new words into a given language, is generally suffi- 182 CHANGES IN VOCABULARY. Lect. XH. ciently palpable. Wherever a new expression is suited to perform the office and take the place of an older one, the disappearance of the latter is easily accounted for. But there are numerous instances in the history of speech, where not single words only, but whole classes of them, suddenly drop out of the vocabulary, and are heard no more. Where an event of this sort is connected with changes in the pro- cesses by which particular ends are accomplished, the old words are commonly supplied by new, so that the whole number is kept sub- stantially good, but when, on the other hand, particular arts cease altogether to be practised, or pass out of the domestic circle, where the whole household more or less takes part in them, into the hands of large mechanical establishments, and become associate and organized, not individual occupations, their nomenclature perishes with them, or is restricted to the comparatively narrow circles which occupy them- selves exclusively in their pursuit. As an example of one of these cases, that namely where the art and its vocabulary become obsolete together, I may mention the employment of archery, in war, in the chase, or as a healthful and agreeable .recreation. If you look into Ascham's ' Toxophilus,' published in Queen Elizabeth's time, or into any old English treatise on the Military Art, you will find numerous technical terms belonging to the use of the bow, which three hundred years ago were as familiar to every man and boy as lock, stock, and barrel are to us, but which have now completely vanished out of the common language of life, except the few of them that have been retained in proverbs and poetic similes. There were bows of a great variety of form and materials, and the manufacture of them was a very important trade by itself. The family names Bowyer and Archer, the latter from the French arc, a bow, are derived from the occupations of persons devoted to the making or the use. of that weapon. The processes employed in the preparation of the wood, by seasoning or otherwise, and in the shaping and decoration of the bow, were very numerous, and each had its appropriate name. The manu- facture of arrows was a different trade. The arrow was as diversified in form and material as the bow, and the arrow-makers, or fletchers as they were called, from the French f 16che, an arrow (whence also the family name Fletcher), had as full a vocabulary as the bowyers. Then came the manufacture of bow-strings, of bow-cases and quivers, of bracers for the protection of the left arm from the grazing of the string, of shooting gloves, and other inferior branches of art belonging to the use of the bow, all distinct trades, and each with its distinct, separate stock of technical words. Now, as I have said before, almost the whole of this vocabulary is utterly gone out of our common speech, and the implement, to the construction and employment of which it belonged, having become disused altogether, no new words have arisen to take the place of those which have Leot. XII. CHANGES IN VOCABULARY. 183 grown obsolete. Fire-arms, indeed, have introduced a totally dif- ferent set of expressions, but the bow and the musket have so little in common, in form or use, that the word aim is almost the only one that could be applied to both. The technical expressions connected with the musket suggest quite other ideas than those belonging to the dialect of archery, and, therefore, the new phrases cannot be con- sidered as the equivalents, or as occupying the place, of the old. The construction of the musket is more difficult than that of the bow, and requires a longer apprenticeship, a much greater stock of tools and mechanical contrivances, and a larger capital for carrying it on ; the demand for this weapon is much less, because one gun will outlast many bows, and for all these reasons, both the business of the gun- smith, which has become a manufacture, not a handicraft, and its terms of art, are less familiar to the people than were those of the bowyer and the fletcher. Although, therefore, the musket has brought with it many new words, and they are used in the main under the same circumstances as the dialect of archery, yet so far as the copiousness of popular English is concerned, the substitution of the one weapon for the other has been attended not only with a great change, but a considerable loss, in the daily speech of the numerous class which formerly drew the bow, but now handle the musket. Again, the improvements in fire-arms and their appurtenances, since their first introduction, have involved almost as great changes of nomenclature as those which followed their substitution for the bow. The forms and mode of employment of field and siege artillery have been almost completely revolutionized, and the technical terms belonging to them are wholly different from what they were three hundred years ago. The musket of the sixteenth century and the improved rifle of the nineteenth differ very widely in their details. In fact, they have little in common but their most general features, and the professional phraseologies of the hackbuteer of Queen Eliza- beth's time, and the sharp-shooter of Queen Victoria's, resemble each other as little as their weapons. A large class of words belonging to arts very familiar to the last generation in America, but now no longer practised in domestic life, has become virtually obsolete within the memory of some who hear me. Let us take the vocabulary of American rural industry, and consider the changes which the advance of mechanical art, and the increased use of cotton, have produced within thirty or forty years in the household conversations upon the single subject of family clothing. At the period to which I refer, the wool and the flax, which formed the raw material of the common dress of the country, as well as of the tissues employed for numerous other purposes in domestic life, were produced upon the homestead. They not only underwent the several operations required to fit them for the dye-pot, the wheel, and 184 LOSS OF WOKKS. LECT. All. the loom, but they were spun, woven, and often coloured, beneath the family roof. Connected with all this industry there was an extensive nomenclature. First came the technicalities belonging to the growing of flax, including the preparation of the ground and the seed ; then the sowing, harvesting, rotting, breaking and swingling the plant. These were out-door labours. Then followed the household toils, the hetchelling, spinning, reeling, spooling, weaving and dyeing or bleaching of the cloth. Each of these processes had its appropriate mechanical implements, some of them complicated in their construc- tion, and every step of the whole succession of labours, every tool and machine, and each of its parts, had its appropriate name. The manufacture of wool, again, had its vocabulary, in some things coinci- dent with, but in many different from, that employed with relation to flax, so that the supply of linen and woollen cloth for domestic purposes required the use of certainly not less than two or three hundred technical words, all of which were perfectly intelligible to every inhabitant of the country districts. The labours of which I speak extended through the whole year, and formed the most impor- tant of the industrial functions which the mistress of the family participated in and directed, and consequently were prominent and constant subjects of family conversation. Now, the every-day voca- bulary of common colloquial life does not, at any one period, comprise more than three or four thousand words, and though Kme of the technical terms I have mentioned are still currently uswi in other applications, yet, for the most part, the nomenclature of this great branch of rural industry has perished with the industry itself. I think it safe to say, that the substitution of cotton for linen, and the supply of tissues by large manufacturing establishments, instead of by domestic laoour, have alone driven out of use seven or eight per cent, of the worao which formed the staple of household conversation in the agricultural districts of the Northern States. Similar changes have taken place, though not so recently, in the domestic dialect of England, and indeed of the principal Continental countries. The domestic manufacture of cloths, linens especially, was by no means confined to the poor, in a somewhat earlier stage of European society, and the words belonging to this branch of industry formed almost as conspicuous a part of the vocabulary of exalted, as of humble life. I may mention, as a proof of this, that in different lan- guages the names of different implements employed in spinning have been adopted in very elevated applications, as designations of the female sex, which seems to have appropriated that art to itself in all times and countries. Thus, not to speak of the phraseology of more primitive ages, in modern Danish, the male and female lines of descent and inheritance, or, as we say, the father's side and the mother's Bide, are called respectively the sword-side and the spinning or spindle- Lect. XII. INTRODUCTION OF NEW WORDS. 185 side ; and in France, the Salic law, which excludes women from the inheritance of the throne, is popularly expressed by the proverb that " The crown does not descend to the distaff." * The words that have thus perished have left no representatives behind them, for the time and thought once employed in these humble labours are now devoted to occupations in no wise connected with domestic manufactures, occupations which have brought a new and wholly unrelated stock of words with them. Music, books, monthly and weekly periodicals, journeys, so much facilitated by the increase of railroads and steamboats, now fill up many hours formerly laboriously occupied with the cares of household life, and each of these has contributed its share of new words to enlarge and to enrich the sphere of thought and the range of vocabulary belonging to the productive classes. § 4. Translations from foreign literatures have introduced great numbers of Continental and new words into English. All nations have not only their proper tongues, but their characteristic ideas, thoughts, tastes, sensibilities, and the vocabulary adapted to the em- bodiment of these fails to find equivalents in the languages of other peoples. Hence a translator is not unfrequently obliged either to borrow the foreign word itself, or to frame, by composition or deriva- tion, another more in accordance with native models, to express to his readers an intellectual conception, a taste or an antipathy, new not only to their speech, but to their mental and moral natures. An incident which excites the surprise, or appeals to the sympa- thies, of a whole people will often give a very general and permanent currency to a new word, or an expression not before in familiar use. Take for example the word coincidence. The verb coincide and its derivative noun are of rather recent introduction into the language. They are not found in Minshew, and they occur neither in Shake- speare nor in Milton, though they may perhaps have been employed by scientific writers of as early a date. They belong to the language of mathematics, and were originally applied to points or lines. Thus, if one mathematical point be superposed upon another, or one straight line be superposed upon another straight line between the same two points, or if two lines follow the same course, whatever be its curve, between two points, then, in the first case the two points, in the latter two, the two lines are said to coincide, and their conformity of position is called their coincidence. In like manner, any two events happening at the same period, or any two acts or states beginning at the same moment, and ending at the same moment, are said to coin- cide in time, and the conjugate noun, coincidence, is employed to * Spear-side and spindle-side occur in the will of Alfred as designations of the nils and female lines. 1 86 INTRODUCTION OF NEW WORDS. Lect XII. express the fact that they are contemporaneous. These words soon passed into common use, in the same sense, and were applied also figuratively to identity of opinion or character in different individuals, as well as to many other cases of close similarity or resemblance, but they still belonged rather to the language of books and of science than to the daily speech of common life. On the Fourth of July, 1826, the semi-centennial jubilee of the declaration of American Independence, Thomas Jefferson, the author, and John Adams, one of the signers of that remarkable manifesto, both also Ex-Presidents, died, and this concurrence in the decease of distinguished men on the anniversary of so critical a point in their lives and the history of their country was noticed all over the world, but more especially in the United States, as an extraordinary coincidence. The death of Mr. Monroe, also an Ex-President, on the Fourth of July a year or two after, gave a new impulse to the circulation of the word coincidence, and in the United States it at once acquired, and still retains, a far more general currency than it had ever possessed before.* The discussions at an important political assemblage, in the United States, a few years since, gave a wide circulation, if not birth, to a new word, the convenience of which will secure it a permanent place in the language, and, at last, admission to the vocabulary of at least American literature. At the Baltimore Convention of 1844, which nominated Mr. Polk for the Presidency, some excitement was pro- duced by alleged attempts to control the action of the convention by persous not members of it, through irregular channels, and by irre- gular means. In the debate which arose on this subject, a prominent member energetically protested against all interference with the business of the meeting by outsiders. The word, if not absolutely new, was at least new to most of those who read the proceedings of that important convention, and it was now for the first time employed in a serious way. Its convenience seemed to strike the public mind at once ; and as we have no other, and can have no better word than this genuine Saxon compound to express the idea it conveys, it will undoubtedly maintain itself in our vocabulary. In the same way the progress of natural science, and the discussion of the theories of vital propagation and growth, have made develope * Words to which a sudden prominence is given are usually iterated and re- iterated usque ad nauseam. Thus element, perhaps from its frequency in alche- mical books and conversation, or from its use in theological discussion in con- nexion with the doctrine of the real presence (elements of the Eucharist, a sense not noticed by Johnson), had become so current, that the clown in Tu-elfth Wight objects to it as too common : — " I will conster to them whence you come : who you are, and what you would, are out of my welkin : I might say element ; but the word is over-worn." ■ — Twelfth NlgM, act iii. sc. 1. f.ECT. XII. INTRODUCTION OF NEW WORDS. 187 and development, and the ideas they express, so familiar that it is hard to find a page of contemporaneous literature without them; and their great currency is one of the many proofs of the extent to which conceptions derived from physical science have entered into the general culture of our times.* Probably most of the new words in any language grow out of the foreign relations of the country where it is spoken, because new ob- jects and new conditions of society are more frequently of foreign than of strictly domestic origin. The early history of the English language is full of exemplifications of this principle, and many illus- trations of its truth will be found in every treatise upon our native speech. Similar circumstances are producing like effects at the pre- sent day. The American word immigrant, for example, as opposed to emigrant, the one used with reference to the country to which, the other with reference to that/rom which the migration takes place, is a valuable contribution of this sort to the English vocabulary. It did not originate in England, because, since the Conquest, there has never been any such influx of strangers into the country as to create a necessity for very specific designations of them ; but the immense number of Europeans who have migrated to the "United States has given that class of inhabitants a great importance, and very naturally suggested the expediency of coming a precise term, to express their relations to their new country, corresponding to that we already pos- sessed as applicable to their relations to their native land. Doubtless incomer would have been a better word, but that was objectionable, because it could not have a correlative of like formation, for outcomer would, in some of its uses, involve a contradiction, and besides, the noun income, to which incomer would regularly correspond, has a very different signification. Better still would it have been to revive the good old English comeling, which was used by Eobert of Glou- cester for the very same purpose as our immigrant, and often occurs in the Wycliffite translations, where later versions have stranger. Prom this same root we have another very expressive word, the boldness of whose form — a form that sets at defiance the ordinary rules of derivation — renders it still more appropriate as a designation of a class of independent thinkers, who pride themselves on their hos- tility to venerahle shams and their disregard of hoary conventionali- ties. I mean the comeouters. This word has not, I believe, been yet received into polite literature, but nevertheless, repugnant as it is to the laws of English etymology, its thorough Saxon descent makes it more acceptable to both tongue and ear than such a word as en- * la a recent report of a committee upon the vegetables exhibited at the fair of an agricultural society, I observe the award of a premium to the grower of some " remarkably well-developed squashes." Ift8 SUSPENDED ANIMATION OF WORDS. I.ect. XH. lightenment, which, as I have said before, though much wanted, has been hitherto resisted because of its mongrel aspect. A list of the new words which have been presented for admission to our vocabulary,* including those which have failed of securing a reception, would be both curious and instructive, because it would show the deliberate judgment, or rather the instinctive sense, of the nation with respect to the principles which ought to govern the formation of native, and the Baturalization of foreign, vocables. The tendency for a long time appears to have been to discourage domestic linguistic manufactures, and promote the importation of foreign wares. Here, as in public economy and finance, the free-trade party is in the ascendant, but in spite of the foreign influences to which the rapidly-increasing intercourse, personal and commercial, between England and the European continent gives great weight, and in spite of the Latinizing tendencies of rhymed verse, to which I shall refer hereafter, there are unequivocal tokens of a reaction, and I have little doubt that the Saxon element will soon recover some of the ground it has abandoned in the last four or five centuries. Hitherto, how- ever, not much has been done in the way of reviving lost or quiescent Saxon roots, and the fluctuations of the vocabulary have been chiefly confined to the Romance ingredient. Latin words, like strange guests, are constantly coming late and going early, while the native Saxons either steadily maintain their position, like old householders, or if they once fall into forgetfulness, remain long in a state of repose ; but there is now a movement among the Seven Sleepers, and the future progress of our speech, it may be hoped, will bring back to us many a verbal Rip Van Winkle. § 5. I have elsewhere spoken of what I have called the " sus- pended animation " of words, as one of the most singular phenomena of their history, and English philologists have collected numerous instances of this sort, chiefly from the Latin element of English, though there are not wanting like cases in proper Saxon words. The Saxon adjective reckless, formerly spelled retchless, for example, was in constant use down to the middle of the sixteenth century, but when Hooker, writing fifty years later, employed the word, it had become so nearly obsolete, that he, or perhaps his editor, thought it necessary to explain its meaning in a marginal note. It has now been revived, and is perfectly familiar to every English-speaking * Character, though occurring many times in Shakespeare, does not appear to have been very readily or generally accepted, for Wotton, writing at least ten years after Shakespeare's death, says : — " Now here then will lie the whole businesse, to set down beforehand certain Signature*, of Hopefulnesse, or Chnracters (as I will rather call them, beiause that Word hath gotten already some entertainment among us)." — WOTTON, A Sisrveigh of Education, p. 321, edition of 1651. Lect. XII. DISAPPEARANCE OF OLD WORDS. 189 person. A couple of like instances, though not in Saxon words, occur in a little vocabulary which went through at least twelve edi- tions in the seventeenth century, hut is now so completely forgotten as to be little known except to bibliographers. It is entitled ' The English Dictionarie, or an Interpreter of Hard English Words, Enabling as well Ladies and Gentlewomen, young Scholars, Clerks, Merchants, as also Strangers of any Nation to the understanding of the more difficult Authors alreadie f rinted in our Language. — By Henry Cockeram, Gentleman.' Among the " hard words " which make up Master Cockeram's list, are the verbs abate and abandon, both of which are marked as ' now out of use, and only used of some ancient writers." Now, both these words occur in the English Bible, in Shakespeare, and in Milton, and abate, as a term of art in law, could never have become obsolete in the dialect of that profession. They are now, and have long been, in very current use, both colloquially and in literature, and the period during which they were not familiarly employed must have been a very short one.* § 6. The introduction of a new word, native or foreign, often proves fatal to an old one previously employed in the same or an allied sense. Income, for instance, is of recent introduction, though Saxon in its elements and form, and it is generally applied to the pecuniary product of estates, offices or occupations, and even when used with respect to lands, its signification is confined to the money received for rent, or the net profit accruing from the sale of the crops. It corresponds very closely to the German Einkommen in etymology, structure and signification, and is a good example of verbal affinity between a Teutonic dialect and our own, but we have purchased this convenient word by the sacrifice of another, equally expressive, though more restricted in use, and belonging to the Scan- * Ventilate and proclivity, after having been half forgotten, have come again into brisk circulation, and a comparison of the literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries will show multitudes of words common to the first and last of these periods, but which were little used in the second. The most remaikable lists of such words as I :\m now speaking of are those referred to by Trench in the second chapter of his little volume on the authorized version of the New Testament. I will not quote these lists here, because throughout this course I make it a point not to borrow fiom that very instruc- tive and agreeable writer, and thereby diminish the pleasure which such of my hearers as are not already familial' with his works will find in their perusal. They are excellent exemplifications of the attractions and value of unpretending philological criticism, as distinguished from linguistic investigation ; and I know no books on language better calculated to excite curiosity and stimulate inquiry ' into the proper meaning and use of the English tongue, than those interesting volumes, The Study of Words, English Past and Present, The Lessons con- tained in Proverbs, and the essay on the English New Testament to which I have just i'luded. ]90 DIALECT OF PERIODICALS. Lect. XII. dinavian side of English. I refer to of come, employed by old English writers in the sense of prodwce rather than of product, though some- times synonymously with the more modern income. § 7. To persons who desire to watch the progress of change in English, periodical literature, and especially the daily journals, furnish the best opportunities for observation, and they are as faith- ful in serving up the novelties of speech, as the political and com- mercial news of the day. The advertising columns, especially, often contain very odd specimens of both syntax and vocabulary, and one can scarcely run over a single sheet of a newspaper without noting, among words which merit a place nowhere, some which, though excluded from dictionaries, ought long ago to have met acceptance. In a small fragment of a New York daily paper, I find these words and phrases (nearly, half of them in extracts from English journals), not any one of which I believe any general English dic- tionary explains : photoglyphic engraving ; telegram, for telegraphic message ; an out-and-out extreme clipper ; prospecting for gold ; go- ahead people ; they are not on speaking terms ; Mr. Gottschalk's rendition of a piece of music ; the Black Swan is concertizing in the western States; the vessel leaked so many strokes an hour; an emergent meeting of a society — apparently in the sense of a meeting to consider an emergency ; such a man ought to be spotted by his associates ; old fogy, which, by the way, is an old English word ; such a handsomely-put-on man as Mr. Dickens; and Kossuth's phrase, the solidarity of the peoples. Some of these expressions have little claim to be considered English, and they belong to the class of words which " come like shadows, so depart," but several of them long have been, and others will be, permanent members of the col- loquial, if not of the literary fraternity of the language. Photoglyphic and telegram are too recent in origin to be yet entitled to the rights of citizenship, but, whatever may become of the former, telegram will maintain its place, for reasons of obvious convenience ; and in spite of the objections of some Hellenists against it as an anomalous formation, the English ear is too familiar with Greek compounds of the same elements to find this word repugnant to our own principles of etymology. ( 191 ) LECTURE XIII. INTERJECTIONS AND INTONATIONS. § 1. Interjections not syntactical. § 2. Differences of pronunciation. § 3. National peculiarities of intonation. § 4. Similarity of interjections in most languages. § 5. Interjections parts of speech. § 6. Vocal gestures. § 7. Passionate expressions. § 8. Interjections sometimes syntactical. § 9. Modulations of the voice. § 10. Expletives. § 1. In a historical sketch of the genetic development of the parts of speech, we should naturally begin with the Interjection, both because it is the earliest of distinct human vocal sounds, and because it is a spontaneous voice prompted by nature, and not, like other words, learned by imitation, or taught by formal instruction. This is at least the character of the true interjection, though the want of a specific term, and the inconvenience which would result from a too copious and minute grammatical nomenclature, oblige us to include under the same appellation words, and even entire phrases, whose resemblance to that part of speech lies chiefly in being, like it, introduced into a period with which they are not syntactically connected. Of the elements of discourse, there is no one which has received so little attention from grammarians as the part of speech in ques- tion. Pew treatises on language devote more than a page or two to the subject, and many writers have denied to interjections the cha- racter of words altogether. I think that, with most grammarians, this is a prejudice arising from the fact, that these words seem to have no appropriate place in so artificial a system as that of the Latin grammar, from which we have derived most of our ideas of the structure of language. They can neither be declined nor con- jugated ; they are incapable of degrees of comparison ; they govern nothing, qualify nothing, connect nothing, and may be left out of the period altogether without affecting the syntactical propriety of its structure. In short, they cannot be parsed. They have no posi- tion in the rank and file of the legion, and therefore are at best supernumeraries, if not intruders. In a language so cemented and compacted together as the Latin, not by mortar or pins of indepen- dent material and formation, but by organic attachments, natural hooks and eyes, congenital with the words and of one substance with them, this objection to the recognition of constituents so incapable of 192 DIFFERENCES OF PRONUNCIATION. Lisci. XIII assimilation is by no means without validity ; but in English, and in those other tongues where the relations between important words are determined by mere position or by the aid of distinct and insig- nificant particles, it strikes us much less forcibly. I shall endeavour to vindicate the claim of these neglected articulations to rank as legitimate means of vocally expressing human passions, states, affec tions, and therefore to be called words, though of a rhetorical and dramatic, not of a logical or didactic character. § 2. Considered as a purely natural and spontaneous emission ol the voice, we might expect to find similar interjections in all human tongues, but their forms, even when they most resemble each other, are modified by the same obscure influences which diversify the action of the organs of speech in the production of like or analogous sounds among different nations, and consequently they are by no means identical in different languages. The alleged diversity in the cries of the infant, and in the true interjections, which two utterances, psychologically considered, belong to the same general class of expres- sive sounds, has been urged by some physiologists as a proof of a diversity of origin in the human race. But the argument loses something of its weight, when it is shown, as it may be, that in numerous other cases, words common to two or more demonstrably cognate nations, and identical in form and sound, so far as any written notation can express sound, are nevertheless differenced in their pronunciation by those nations as widely as the true interjec- tions are by unrelated races. These distinctions are occasioned by two proximate causes ; the one is the employment of different sets of muscles, by different peoples, for the production of the same or similar sounds, the other is the peculiar quality impressed upon articulate sounds by the intonation with which they are uttered. These two classes of linguistic facts, the production namely of like or analogous sounds in different languages by the employment of different organs, or at least muscles, and the fixed character of national intonation in certain languages, have as yet been little in- vestigated by philologists, but they are full of curious interest, and the study of them, however difficult, is essential to the construction of even a tolerably complete system of phonology. Nice distinctions between related sounds depend of course upon the mechanical means employed to produce them, and one reason why an adult so seldom succeeds in mastering the pronunciation of a foreign language, why he is at once recognized as a stranger by his articulation even of words which, according to grammars and dictionaries, are identical with syllables and words of his mother-tongue, is, that to pronounce them like a native, he must call into play muscles not employed, or employed iu a different way, in speaking his own language, and which have become so rigid from disuse, that he cannot acquire the LECT. XIII. INTONATIONS. 193 command of them, or, in other words, render them what arc called voluntary muscles. Further, the organs of speech act and react upon each other ; the frequent play of a given set of muscles modifies the action of neighbouring or related muscles ; there is, to use a word which, if not now English, soon will be, a certain solidarity between them all, and organs accustomed to the deep gutturals of the Arabic, the hissing and lisping sounds of the English, or the nasals of the French and Portuguese, are with great difficulty trained to the pure articulation of languages like the Italian, in which such elements do not exist. § 3. National peculiarities of intonation are still more subtle and obscure, and they are almost equally difficult to seize by the ear, and to reproduce by the lips and tongue. To us, whose intonations belong not to the individual word, but to the whole period, it is difficult to conceive of the tone with which a word is uttered, as a constant, essential, characteristic, and expressive ingredient of the word itself. But in monosyllabic languages like the Chinese, where the number of words, differing in the vowel and consonantal ele- ments of which they are composed, must necessarily be very small, other distinctions must be resorted to, and accordingly we find that in such languages a monosyllable, consisting perhaps of ono vowel and one or two consonantal elements, and which admits of but one mode of spelling in alphabetic characters, may nevertheless have a great number of meanings, each indicated by a peculiarity of into- nation not perhaps appreciable by foreign ears, but nevertheless readily recognizable by a native. These peculiarities are, however, by no means confined to languages so alien to our own, for they exist in the Danish and the Swedish, both of which are nearly allied to English, and they, no doubt,, occur to a considerable, but thus far uninvestigated, extent, in other tongues more familiar to most of us. In such languages, these intonations are constant, and they are also expressive and significant, so far that certain words are under all cir- cumstances pronounced with the same intonation, and thus distin- guished from words differing from them in signification, but otherwise identical in sound. Scandinavian phonologists have made these intonations, for which the vocabulary of our language does not even furnish names, a subject of special inquiry ; and Bask, one of the most eminent of modern philologists, has subtilized so far upon them, that few of his own countrymen, even, have sufficient acuteness of ear to follow him. But this is not strange, when we learn that the same discriminating phonologist fancied he could detect, what no Englishman ever did, a difference between the pronunciation of our two English words pale, pallid, and pail, a water-bucket.* * Kask's Danish Grammar for the Use of Englishmen. DNG. LAN. O 194 SIMILARITY 0J? INTERJECTIONS. Lect. XIIl. Yet more etherial than even these subtle shades of difference, is what, to borrow a musical term, may be called the mode in which a given language is spoken. A stranger in Greece or the East is struck at once by a certain sadness of tone, amounting at times almost to wailing, which marks the speech of the people, and especially of the women of the lower classes. Borne travellers have ascribed this to the long centuries of humiliation and oppression under which women have groaned in the Bast ; but I think it belongs rather to the races than to the sex ; for it is not altogether confined to the women : and, besides, something of the same sort is found among the most primi- tive and simple tribes, and the fact, if it is a fact, that the music of ancient Greece and Latium, like that of most Oriental countries, was wholly in the minor mode, seems to confirm this view. The Greek, or, to speak more specifically, Alexandrian and other colonial grammarians, carefully investigated the intonation of their language, in both its branches, accentuation, and vocal inflexion, and they invented several points, which we call accents, to indicate the particular intonation of the important syllables of the words. What the signification of these points was we do not know ; nor does the pronunciation of the modern Greeks afford us any light on the sub- ject. What we call accent, that is, stress of voice, has been generally supposed to have been, among other things, marked by them ; but this is disputed. Metrical quantity or prosody, they certainly did not indicate, but left it to general rules, which, in most cases, were sufficiently explicit. The quantity, or relative duration of syllables as it is generally understood, is a quality of sound to which the Greek ear was acutely sensible, and it appears to have been recognized in the earlier Teutonic dialects, but to modern ears, it is, as an ele- ment of prosody, much less appreciable. In English verse, and more especially by recent poets, riiythm has been made to depend upon and consist in accentuation alone, and those other elements of articu- lation, which to the ancient classical nations constituted the very essence of poetical melody, are, by the fashion of the day, altogether disregarded. This, I think, is a mistake, but it will be more fitly considered on another occasion. § 4. But, to return from what may be considered a digression, the true interjections, though modified by peculiarities of intonation, have at least a family resemblance, if not an absolute identity, in most known languages. They are, for the most part, monosyllabic, and frequently consist of a vowel preceded or followed by an aspirate, or aspirated guttural only, though they are not always of so simple a structure. Some linguists distinguish between interjections which are baTe indications of mental or physical pain or pleasure, and those which are expressive of sensuous- impressions derived from external objects through the organs of sight and hearing ; but for our present Ltd. Xiit. INTERJECTIONS PARTS OF SPEECH. 195 purpose it is not essential to inquire how far this classification is well founded. The claim of interjections of the purely involuntary character to he classed among what grammarians call the parts of speech, has been disputed, as I have already remarked, on the ground of their alleged want of a truly articulate character, and especially of all etymological and syntactical connexion with the periods of dis- course. It is for this reason that the name of interjection, from the Latin inter jicio (I throw in), has been applied to them, as some- thing casually dropped into the sentence, but not logically belonging to it, or having any grammatical relations with it. It is said that such interjections belong to speech only in .that figurative sense in which all the means whereby external facts are made known to us are comprised within the term language, and they are assimilated to those inarticulate cries which constitute the language of the lower animals. They are generally spontaneous, involuntary exclamations, and they express, in a vague and indeterminate way, the simple fact that the utterer is painfully or pleasurably affected, without in them- selves giving any indication of the cause, or even always of the specific character, of the emotion or sensation. § 5. The interjection has, however, one important peculiarity, which not only vindicates its claim to be regarded as a constituent of language, but entitles it unequivocally to a high rank among the elements of discourse. It is in itself expressive and significant, though indeed in a low degree, whereas, at least in uninflected lan- guages like the English, other words, detached from their grammatical connexions, are meaningless, and become intelligible only as mem- bers of a period. If I utter an interjectional exclamation denoting pain, joy, sorrow, surprise, or anger, every person who hears mc understands at once that I am agitated by the corresponding affec- tion. Here, then, a fact is communicated by a single syllable, and the interjection may be regarded as the hieroglyphical or symbolical expression of a whole period. But, on the other hand, if I pronounce the word house, or red, or run, or ten, without other words, and without accompanying gestures or other explanatory circumstances, I tell the listener nothing, though the word may, indeed, from accident or from some obscure chain of association, excite in his mind an image of the object, or an intellectual conception of the act, or acci- dent, or number, denoted by the word I use. He may, in short, suppose a subject, an object, a copula, or whatever predicate is neces- sary to complete tho period, and thus arbitrarily or conjecturally supply the ellipsis. This, in fact, from the habit of individualizing the general, and making concrete the abstract, he can hardly fail to do, but nevertheless, in the absence of explanatory circumstances, this mental operation of the auditor neither logically results from, nor is warranted by, the force of the word I have uttered, which of 196 VOCAL GESTURES— PASSIONATE EXPRESSIONS. Lect. XIII. itself communicates no fact, authorizes no inference. And herein lies the great miracle of speech, the strongest proof of its living, organic — I had almost said divine— power, that- even as the processes of vegetable life build up, assimilate, vivify, and transform into self- sustaininf, growing, and fruitful forms, the dead material of me- chanical nature, so language, by the mere collocation and ordonnance of inexpressive articulate sounds, can inform them with the spiritual philosophy of the Pauline epistles, the living thunder of a Demo- sthenes, or the material picturesqueness of a Russell. The interjections hitherto described are distinguished from the other parts of speech, not only by their inherent and independent expressiveness (a point in which they have a certain analogy with words imitative of natural sounds, and therefore significant of them) but by the fact that they are subjectively connected with the passion or sensation they denote, and are not so much the enunciation or utterance of the emotion, as symptoms and evidences of it ; in fact, a mode of thinking aloud. In the other articulate forms of communi- cation by which we make known our mental or bodily state, that stale becomes objective, and therefore those forms are descriptive, not ex- pressive. Accordingly, the interjection may be said to be the ap- propriate language, the mother-tongue of passion ; and hence much of the effect of good acting depends on the proper introduction and right articulation of this element of speech. It is related of Whit- field, that his interjections, his Ah! of pity for the unrepentant sinner, his Oh ! of encouragement and persuasion for the almost con- verted listener, formed one of the great excellences of his oratory, and constituted a most effective engine in his pulpit .artillery. § 6. There is a species of interjection not usually distinguished by English grammarians from other words of that class, but which some German writers expressively call Lautgeberden, or vocal gestures. These approach much more nearly to the character of other words than those of which we have hitherto spoken. The spontaneous interjections constitute a kind of self-communion, and, though conveying information of a certain sort to others, they are not uttered with any such conscious purpose. The Lautgeberde, on the other hand, is not a mere involuntary expression of sensation or emotion, but is addressed to other persons or creatures, and usually indicates a desire or command, so that it corresponds to the impern- tive of verbs in complete periods. Among these Lautgeberden, are all the isolated, monosyllabic or longer words, by which wo invite or repel the approach, and check or encourage the efforts of others ; in short, all single detached articulations, intended to in- fluence the action, or call the attention, of others, but not syntacti- cally connected with a period. § 'I. Analogous to these are certain passionate expressions, some- Leqt. XIII. MODULATIONS OF THE VOICE. 197 times forming whole periods, but more commonly abridged, and tised interjectionally. They are sometimes reduced to a single word, sometimes composed of several, but usually without any grammatical connexion with what precedes or follows them. In this class are embraced most familiar optative and deprecatory forms of expression, and especially the invocation of blessings and denun- ciation of curses. Farewell, and welcome (originally distinct periods, but now interjectional), Heaven forbid, and other similar ejaculations, are of this character. The Greek, especially in passionate declama- tion, is full of such phrases. Those familiar with Demosthenes will remember a striking instance in the Fourth Philippic, where, in an interjectional form, he invokes the vengeance of the gods on Philip of Macedon. This is a peculiarly interesting example, because it is one of the few where a syntactical relation exists between the ejaculation and the period into which it is introduced ; for the execra- tion, otirep atrbv e£o\e'encan to think of, remember; ge-strangian to strengthen ; ge-leanian to re- ward; ge-niSerian to degrade, con- demn; from standan, J>encan, Strang, lean (reward), niSer; or gives a figurative sense ; as, b i d d a n to ask, beg, ge-biddan to pray. Many words, however, take g e - with- out any change of meaning; as, seo"n, ge-sednfosee; hyran,ge-h^ran to hear, obey; mearc, ge -me arc mark, limit; rum, ge-rum wide, roomy. be- (E. be-) makes neuter verbs ac- tive ; as, g a n to go, b e - g a n to com- mit, 4~ c - ; feran to go, be-feran to travel over. It is sometimes privative ; as, b y c g a n to buy, be-byegan to sell; be-heafdian to le-liead : often intensive; as, reafian to rob, be- reafian to be-reave; be-gyrdan to be-gird; or otherwise modifies tho sense ; as, be-healdan to he-hold, be-sprecan to be-speak. e d - (again) : ed-niwianfo re-new. sin- (simle always): sin-gven ever-green. sam-: sam-cuce half-quick, half dead, 220 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lect. XIV. s§g - or g e - gives pronouns and ad- verbs an indeterminate sense ; a,s, e6 g - n w y 1 c (ge-awylc) each, every, £§g-hwider whithersoever. — From Vernon's Anglo-Saxon Cfmde. — Ed.] F. On the Want op a Futuee Tense. (See p. 212.) " The want of a future tense as an organic part of the conjugation of verbs is a common defect in many modern languages. In all those of the Teutonic Btock this defect appears inherent. Dr. Frichard {Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, ch. vii. p. 107) says, 'It has been observed that the Teutonic verbs have one form for the future and the present tense. The same remark applies to the Welsh ; for the Welsh language, except in the instance of the verb sub- stantive, -which has two distinct forms, one for the present and the other for the future tense, has only one modifica- tion of the verb, which is used to repre- sent both. In the German dialects the Hingle form above referred to is properly a present tense, but the Welsh gram- marians consider that their language has only a future, and say that the future is put for the present.* " Grimm states the case as follows : — " Our language in all its branches has the power of expressing only two tenses of the verb — the present and the past. In this it differs remarkably from all the languages originally allied to it, which are provided with abundant means for expressing the relations of time. On the contrary, the German approaches to the simplicity of the Hebrew and other tongues which are capable of denoting only the future and the pre- terite. Thus, in our older dialectB, the identity of the future and the present is shown by the fact that the latter tense serves for the former, although, as an exception, the Anglo-Saxon appropriated a particular root of the verb-substantive, com, to the present as distinguished from the future form, beo. The same peculiar relation is seen in the case of the Lithu- anian esmi * sum,' and busu ' ero ; ' the Sclavonian jesm and budu ; and the Irish taim and biad." — Oesehichte der Deutschen Sprache, b. ii. s. 842. " Ulfllas constantly uses the present in- dicative for the future, and the practice continued in the Old High German. There are instances of the same kind in the Middle High German, and even in the modern language, but then the verb is commonly accompanied by some ad- verb implying or expressing future time, as, ich komme morgen, or, ich homme bald: such sentences would no doubt require ' veniam ' or, * viendrai ' in Latin or French. A similar idiom is said to exist in Swedish, and in English we not unfrequently say, *I am going to London to-morrow.' In the Gothic the present subjunctive also lends its aid in expressing futurity, as the optative with av may do in Greek. Ulfllas applies this form in such cases as the following : * haitais/ KoAiaeis — ' Thou Bhait call his name John* {Luke i. 18); ' bidjau,' iptorqo-ti} (John xvi. 26); but its use docs not appear to have extended to other dialects besides the Mcoso-Gotb.ic. Grimm observes truly enough that the close relation between the future tense and the subjunctive mood is sufficiently shown by the analogy of their forms iu the Latin conjugation. " Ulfllas evades the difficulty with regard to the verb substantive by some- times using the tenses of ' vairthan, flo, 1 the verb corresponding to werden, which plays so distinguished a part as an aux- iliary in modern German. " According to Adelung, the Magyar, as well as the Finn and the Esthonian, have no future properly so called, but employ the present instead. From the following extract from M. von Hum- boldt's Appendix to the Mithridates I infer that the Basque forms its future by means of the auxiliary and a participle ; in such a manner, however, that the future force depends upon the participle employed, as it may be said to do in ' sum facturus ' or ' habeo faciendum.' " ( The tenses,' Humboldt says, * are expressed by means of the auxiliary and the participle of the verb. The auxi- liary has two tenses ; one complete in itself, and the other incomplete, or implying continuance, which can be employed Xpr the present, prteterite, and future respectively. These three last distinctions of time are marked by the participle, which accordingly is threefold, and all tenses are thus com- pounded without difficulty. The two tenses of the auxiliary with the present participle express the present or imper- fect, with the past participle the per- fect or pluperfect, and so on.* Lkct. XIV. WANT OF A FUTURE TENSE. 221 " It thus seems that in very many languages, including all those of the Teutonic stock, a proper future tense is ■wanting." — Sir Edmund Head's Shall and IVillt PP- 66-70. Dr. Guest remarks {Transactions of Philological Society, vol. ii. p. 223) that the English verb be was long retained for the expression of future time, more particularly in the North, as in the fol- lowing example : — •' if thout may that fulfille Alle hees done (will be done) right at the wiUe." — Ed.] ( 222 ) LECTURE XV. GRAMMATICAL INFLEXIONS.* § 1. Purposes of inflexion. § 2. The verb owe and ought. § 3. Inflexions of verbs. § 4. Inflexions of adjectives and substantives. § 5. Variety of inflexions. § 6. Modes of inflexion : the strong and the weak. § 7. Origin of inflexions. I. § 1. In considering the interjection, it -was stated that words of that class were distinguished from all other parts of speech by the quality of inherent and complete significance, so that a single ejacu- latory monosyllable, or phrase not syntactically connected with a period, might alone communicate a fact, or, in other words, stand for and express an entire proposition. The interjection might be invo- luntarily uttered, and impart a fact of a nature altogether subjective to the speaker, as, for example, that he was affected with sensations of physical pain or pleasure, with grief or with terror; or it might assume a form more approximating to that of syntactic language, a,nd address itself to an external object, as an expression of love, of pity, of hate or execration, of desire, command, or deprecation. The application of the distinction between interjections, as parts of speech which, used singly and alone, may communicate a fact, a wish, or command, and therefore express an entire proposition, and parts of speech which become significant only by their con- nexion with other vocables, is properly limited to the vocabulary of languages where, as in our own, words admit of little or no change of form, and to the simplest, least variable forms of words in those other languages, which express the grammatical relations, and certain other conditions, of the parts of speech, by what is called inflexion. • I propose now to illustrate the distinction between inflected and uninflected, or grammatically variable and grammatically invariable words, and to inquire into the essential character and use of in- * The illustrations, and much of the argument, in this and the following lectures on the same subject, are too familiar to be instructive to educated per- sons, but I have introduced them in the hope that those engaged in teaching languages might derive somo useful suggestions from them. Leot. XV. PURPOSES OF INFLEXION. 223 flexions. Inflexion is derived from the Latin inflexus, the par- ticiple of flee to, I bend, curve, or turn; and inflexions are the changes made in the forms of words, to indicate either their gramma- tical relations to other words in the same period, or some accidental condition of the thing expressed by the inflected word. The possible relations and conditions of words are very numerous, and some lan- guages express more, some fewer, of them by the changes of form called inflexions. The languages which embody the general literature of Europe, an- cient and modern, employ inflexions for the following purposes : — First, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles, to denote — (a) gender, (b) number, and (c) case, or grammatical relation. Secondly, in adjectives' and adverbs, to mark degrees of comparison. Thirdly, in adjectives, to indicate whether the word is used in a de- finite or an indefinite application. Fourthly, in verbs, to express number, person, voice, mood, and tense ; or, in other words, to deter- mine whether the nominative case, the subject of the verb, is one or more, singular or plural ; whether the speaker, the person addressed, or still another, is the subject ; whether the state or action or emo- tion expressed by the verb is conceived of solely with reference to the subject, or as occasioned by an external agency ; whether that state, action, or emotion is absolute or conditional ; and whether it is past, present, or future.* Interjections, prepositions, and conjunctions are uninflected, or in- variable in form. § 2. The variations of the verb are usually the most numerous, and the uses and importance of inflexions may be well illustrated by comparing an English uninflected with a Latin inflected verb. The English defective verb ought is the old preterite of the verb to owe, which was at an early period used as a sort of auxiliary with the infinitive, implying the sense of necessity, just as we, and * No single one of the languages to which I refer employs inflexion for all the purposes I have specified. The Greek and Latin have the most complete, the English the most imperfect system of variation. The Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish exhibit the rare case of a modern passive voice, bat, like the other tongues of the Gothic stock, they want the future tense ; and, on the other hand, they possess, in common with these latter, the definite and indefinite forms of the adjective, which existed also in Anglo-Saxon, but are not distinguished in Greek and Latin. There may be some doubt whether this distinction is not rather a special exception than a general characteristic of the inflexional system which belongs to the cultivated languages of Europe, but the great importance of Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon literature, entitles the peculiarities of Gothic grammar to a conspicuous place in all treatises upon modern and especially English philology. 226 INFLEXIONS OF VERBS. Lect. XV. § 3. "Wo will now, after a digression which I hope is not abso- lutely irrelevant to our subject, return to the inflexions. Suppose that, in listening to an indistinct conversation, I catch, in a particular period, the word ought only. A vague sense of obligation is excited in my mind, but whether that obligation is confessed by the speaker as resting upon himself, singly, or in con- junction with others, or whether he refers to a duty incumbent upon the friend or friends whom he is addressing, upon some third person, or some number of other persons ; whether he designates the obliga- tion as past, as now demanding performance, or as hereafter to accrue, absolutely or in some particular contingency ; upon none of these points does the form of the word I have happened to hear give me any information whatever. For anything that the form of the verb ought shows to the contrary, the speaker may have said, I ought, he ought, we ought, you ought, or they ought ; he may have referred to the present moment, or any past or future time, as the period when the duty becomes obligatory ; or ho may have treated the duty as contingent or conditional altogether. Now, if the con- versation had been carried on in Latin, no such uncertainty about number, person, time, or mood could have arisen, because the termina- tion of the word corresponding to ought would, of itself, have re- solved every one of these doubts. The moment the word was uttered, even without a pronoun or other nominative, I should have been informed whether the duty was charged upon the speaker; upon one or more persons to whom, or one or more persons of whom, lie was speaking ; whether the time for the performance was past, present, or future ; and whether it was represented as an absolute or as a conditional obligation. To express all possible categories of the word ought, we have one form and no more, and the context, the remainder of the sentence in which rt occurs, the pronoun or other nominative which precedes, and the infinitive which follows, must be called in to determine its multiplied relations of time, person, and condition. The equivalent of ought in Latin is a verb whose radical is conceived to be the monosyllable deb,* which still constitutes the first syllable in all the forms of the verb. In the infinitive mood, present tense, the form is deb ere, and this word admits of should, in mercantile language, have dropped the signification of debt, and con- tracted an opposite meaning, for haben and avoir, as opposed to soil and doit, both indicate, not the debit, but the credit side of the account. * I speak of deb as the inflexional, not the etymological root of debeo. Debeo is considered by some as a contraction of the compound de-habeo, I have from, that is, I have from another what still belongs to him, and, therefore, what I owe to him. The form dehabeo is used by Jerome as a negative of habeo, I have not, I want: and the etymology I have just mentioned is rather too refined to be probable. Leot. XV. INFLEXIONS OF ADJECTIVES AND SUBSTANTIVES. 227 more than fifty inflexions or changes of termination in the active voice alone, all so distinctly marked, that each one instantly suggests to the mind of the hearer the answer to every one of the points I have -mentioned as left undetermined by the corresponding English verb ought, which expresses nothing but the naked fact of a duty incumbent, at an uncertain time, upon an uncertain person or persons. If the isolated word I have caught happen to be deheo, I know that the speaker acknowledges a present duty incumbent upon him- self; had it been debuisti, I should have understood that re- ference was made to a past obligation of the person addressed ; if debebunt, to a future duty of more than one third person; it debuerimus, to a conditional duty of the speaker and some other person or persons. All these forms are active, and make the person bound the subject of the period ; but the duty itself may be made the subject, and then an equally full set of passive inflexions may be used, in some cases indeed with the aid of an auxiliary, to express substantially the same ideas.* This may he said to be an extreme case, because, although hundreds of Latin verbs are as complete in their inflexions as d e b e r e , yet many are far less so, and on the other hand the English example is a simple auxiliary, and as such little susceptible of inflexion. This is indeed true, but it is a mere difference in degree. Our verbs generally, excluding the obsolescent second and third persons singular in -est and -eth, as lorest, \oveth, have but three or four changes of form, and all the other categories are clumsily expressed by means of auxiliaries. § 4. In like manner, our adjectives admit no inflexion whatever, except in the degrees of comparison. Thus the adjective leautiful is applied equally to persons of either sex, to the subject or the object of the verb, and to one or more persons, without any change of form. We say a beautiful boy or girl, beautiful boys or girls, whether the substantive to which it is applied be in the nominative, possessive, or objective case. In short, the adjective is, except in comparison, indeclinable, invariable, or uninflected, all of which terms are em- ployed to express the same thing. The Latin adjective pulcher, meaning beautiful, has, on the contrary, twelve different forms in the positive degree alone, and in the comparative and superlative twenty- two more, making thirty-four in all. Thus we say in Latin, in the nominative case, pulcher puer,a beautiful boy, pulchra pu ella, a beautiful girl ; in the genitive or possessive, pulchri pueri, of a beautiful boy, pulchras puellae, of a beautiful girl; in the accusative, corresponding * We should perhaps not be able to find instances of the actual occurrence of debeo as expressive of obligation, in all the active and passive inflexions, but such are grammatically and logically possible. 228 INFLEXIONS OF ADJECTIVES AND SUBSTANTIVES. Lect. XV. generally to the objective of English grammarians, pulchrum puerum, a beautiful boy, pulchram puellam, a beautiful girl.* Some of these forms indeed are equivocal, the same inflexion being used with different cases or genders, but nearly all of them clearly and certainly indicate the number, most of them the grammatical relations, and many of them the gender of the noun to which the adjective is applied. Substantives also, admitting in English no change of form, except the indication of the genitive or possessive case and the plural number, go through a wide range of variation in Latin, every syntactical categoiy having its appropriate form. Thus it will have been observed that, in the examples I have cited, pul- cher puer and pulchra puella, in every case the termina- tion of the adjective and the noun is the same; pulcher puer, pulchri pueri, pulchrum puerum, pulchra puella, &c, but it is not necessary that the endings be alike. It suffices that particular endings be used together. There is another and more common fonn of the Latin adjective, in which the termination of the masculine nominative is not - e r , but -us. The adjective bonus, . good, is an example of this, and if bonus were used with the same substantive puer in the nominative case, the phrase would stand bonus puer. Here the endings are not alike; but when the syllable -us is once accepted as one of the signs by which the masculine nominative is recognised, there is no difficulty in its use. § 5. In teaching Latin by the writing of themes it is common to give the pupil the words of which he is to compose his periods in their simplest forms, leaving it to him to inflect them according to their intended relations. In this case the words constitute no period, express no proposition, and are as meaningless as would be a like number of English verbs, nouns, and adjectives, arranged without reference to grammatical relation, and unsupplied with the particles and auxiliaries which, in connexion with certain laws of position, indicate to us categories that, in other languages, are expressed by inflexion. For instance, in the English phrase, sheep fear man, the words are all in their simplest, uninflected form, the form which, as * The Horatian verse : — " matre pulchrd filla pulchrior .' '* — (0 fairer daughter of a fair mother I or, daughter fairer than [thy] fair mother I) — is a good example of the superior gracefulness of expression in inflected lan- guages ; but it is more equivocal than the English, for, though in this instance there is no logical difficulty in the construction, there is nevertheless a gramma- tical uncertainty whether the lady addressed is compared with her mother, or the mother of some other person. LfcCT. XV. VARIETY OF INFLEXIONS. 229 we suppose, comes nearest to their primitive radical shape, but we have no difficulty in determining their relations to each other. We know that sheep, which comes first in the proposition, is the subject or nominative of the verb fear, and that man, which follows the verb, is its object or objective case. Now, if we take the correspond- ing Latin words in the simplest, most indefinite form in which they occur in that language, we have ovis, timere, homo: but this succession of words would convey to a Roman ho meaning whatever, and in order to make it intelligible to him we must begin with ovis, the nominative singular of the Latin word for sheep, and transform it into o v e s , which is the regular nominative plural of that form of nouns ; timere, the infinitive corresponding to the English verb fear, must be changed into timent, which is the indicative present third person plural of that verb, and homo, the nominative singular of the Latin word for man, into the accusative or objective, h o m i n e m , or the plural homines. The proposi- tion would then stand, oves timent hominem, and, as I shall show hereafter, the meaning would to a Homan be equally clear, and precisely the same, if the order of the words were reversed, homi- nem timent oves. I have taken my illustrations from the Latin, as a tongue more or less familiar to all of us, but although, as compared with English, its system of inflexion may be considered very complete, yet it is extremely meagre when measured by that of many other languages. In Turkish, for example, a numerous class of verbs has, first, its simple, its reflexive, and its reciprocal forms ; to each of these belongs a causative form, thus making six, all active and affirmative. Then comes the passive of each, giving us twelve, and every one of these twelve has, besides its affirmative form, a negative and an impossible conjugation, so that we have thirty-six funda- mental forms, each of which, in its different moods, tenses, numbers, and persons, admits of about one hundred inflexions, thus giving to the verb three or four thousand distinctly marked expressive forms. But even this wide range of inflexion by no means exhausts the possible number of variations indicative of grammatical relation, or other conditions of the verb, for in some languages there are duals, or verbal forms exclusively appropriated to the number two ; and in others, the verb has special inflexions for the different genders. Again, in some tongues there are forms expressive of iteration or repetition, called frequentatives, as from the Latin d i c o , I say, the frequentative diet i to, in nursery English I keep saying. There are also forms expressive of desire, as from the Latin e d o , I eat, e s u r i o , I desire to eat, I am hungry ; and of commencement, or tendency, as from the Latin caleo, I am warm, calesco, I grow warm; from silva, a wood, silvescere, to run to wood 230 VARIETY OF INFLEXIONS. LeCT. XV. (of a vine plant); from arbor, a tree, arborescere, to lecome a In Spanish and Italian there are numerous terminations applied to substantives and adjectives, indicative of augmentation or dimi- nution, affection or dislike, and these are sometimes piled one upon the other by way of superlative. Thus from the Italian uomo, a man, we have omaccio, a bad man, omacciono, a very little man, omaooione, a, large, or sometimes a noble-minded, man, omacciotto, a mean little man, ometto or omettolo, a small man, omiciatto or omiciattolo, an insignificant man. These last words, indeed, as well as some of the verbal forms I have cited, may be said to be derivatives rather than inflexions, because they express qualities or accidents, not syntactical relations or conditions, and belong therefore to the domain of logic, not properly to that of grammar, except simply so far as the whole history of words belongs to grammar. It appears to me, nevertheless, that all regular changes of words may be called inflexions, and the power of modifying vocables by such changes is- as characteristic of different languages as the variations of termination or of radical vowel, which are generally embraced in that designation. The speech of the Spanish Basques, one of those rare sporadic, or, as they have been sometimes called, insular languages, which long maintain themselves in the midst of unallied tongues and hostile influences, appears to be unsurpassed, if not unequalled, in variety of inflexion. Thus all the parts of speech, including prepo- sitions, conjunctions, interjections, and other particles, admit of declension. There are six nominative forms and twelve cases of the noun. The adjective has twenty cases. Every Romance verb is represented by twenty-six radical forms, each with a great number of inflexions; and different modes of conjugation are employed in addressing a child, a woman, an equal, or a superior.! Thus far we have spoken of simple words only, and their regular derivatives, but, if they be compounded, still more complex ideas may be conveyed, and finally, in some languages, by the process to which we have before referred, called agglutination, but not always distinguishable from more familiar modes of composition, or even from inflexion, several words may be compressed into one, and thus a single verb may of itself stand for a whole sentence, expressing at * Fuller, who had a heroic contempt for all wOrd-fetters, translates the h sec planta in Judea arborescit of Grotius, by "hyssope doth tree it in Judea." — Pisgah Sight of Palestine, i. 10, § 8. * Quatrefages, Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste. Lect. XV. MODES OF INFLEXION. 231 once the subject, the copula, the object, as well as numerous pre- dicates or qualifications of all of them. § 6. Not only the objects, but the methods, of inflexion are veiy various in different tongues, and a single language often avails itself of more than one of them. It may be stated that there are two leading modes of variation, both sufficiently exemplified in English, — the one consisting in a change of some of the elements, usually vowels, of the root-form ; the other in prefixing or subjoining ad- ditional syllables, or at least vocal elements, to the radical. Of the first sort, the letter-change, our verb to ride is an example, the diphthongal long i of the root being changed into o in the preterite rode, and into simple short i in the participle ridden. So run, ran ; write, wrote (in Old English wrate), written ; fly, flew, and so forth. In like manner man makes men in the plural ; foot, feet ; goose, geese, and the like. The Scandinavian and Teutonic lan- guages, which are so closely allied to English both in grammar and in vocabulary, much affect the letter-change, and we find in all of them, as well as in Anglo-Saxon, traces of a much more extensive use of this principle at some earlier period of linguistic development. For instance, in all these languages the verb had probably once a regular causative form, consisting in a vowel-change, and it is curious that the remains of this form should be found at this day in the same roots of each of them. Thus, the neuter verb to fall has its causative to fell, that is to cause to fall, as to fell a tree with an axe, to fell a man by a blow ; the neuter to lie, its causative to lay, to make to lie, or place ; and the neuter to sit, its causative to set, in several different applications. These same neuters, with their respective causatives, exist in Danish, Swedish, and German, as well as in English. The resemblance in their forms leads oc- casionally to confusion in their use. The causative to set, in its different acceptations, is a sad stumbling-block to persons who are not strong in their accidence ; and to lie and to lay are so frequently confounded, that even Byron, in his magnificent apostrophe to the Ocean, was guilty of writing " there let him lay." * Neither the English nor the other languages of the Gothic stock now do, nor, so far as we are able to follow them back historically, ever did, exclude inflexion by the mode of addition of letters or syllables, and the two methods of conjugation and declension appear to have co-existed from a very remote period. Although, therefore, we inflect many Saxon primitives by augmentation, yet we confine the letter-change Rlmost wholly to words of that stock, and we generally, if not * The old poem of Kyng Alisaunder has lie for lay : "So on the schyngil lytii the haile. Every knyght so laide on other." — 2210-221 1. 232 Modes of inflexion. lbct. xv. always, inflect Latin and other foreign roots by augmentation. Thus the verb to amend, which we derive from the Latin through the French, forms its preterite amended by the addition of the syllable -ed to the simple form. The Latin-English noun possession makes its plural by subjoining s, possessions. We still use prefixes largely in composition ; but as a flexional element, although they were a good deal employed in Anglo-Saxon, they must now be considered obsolete. The syllabic prefix ge-, regularly used in An^lo-Saxon with preterites, and often with past participles, as well as in many other cases, long retained its ground, and is yet some- times employed in the archaic style of poetry, in the form of a y, which, in our orthography, nearly represents the probable pro- nunciation of the Saxon augment. Spenser uses this augment very frequently, and Thomson often employs it in the ' Castle of Indo- lence,' both of them merely for metrical convenience.* Of these two leading modes of variation, the former, which consists in a change of letter in the radical form, is called the strong ; the latter, consisting in the addition of vocal elements to the root, the weak inflexion. The principle on which this nomenclature is founded is that the power of varying a word by change of its more unessential constituents, without external aid in the way of composi- tion or addition of syllables, implies a certain vitality, a certain innate organic strength, not possessed by roots capable of variation only by the incorporation or addition of foreign elements. The * In Milton it occurs but thrice, and in one of these three instances it n applied in a very unusual way. In the first printed of Milton's poetical com- positions, the Epitaph on Shakespeare, we find the lines : — "What needs my Shakespeare, for bis honour'd bones, The labour of an age In piled stones? Or that his hallow'd rellques should be hid Under a stax-ypointing pyramid i " Here the syllabic augment y- is prefixed to a present participle, a form of which there are very few examples, though ilestinde, y-lasting, or permanent, occurs in the proclamation of King Henry III. referred to in a note on page 225. The prefix is rarely applied to any but Saxon radicals, and thus y-pointing is a double departure from the English idiom. Y-pointed, indeed, is found in Robert of Gloucester, and it is possible that Milton wrote y-pointed, in which case the meaning would be pfinted or surmounted with a star, like some of the Egyptian obelisks, which have received this decoration since they were transferred to Europe, instead of pointing to the stars. It is not here inappropi iate to remark that the expletive ywiss, often written Iwiss, as if it were two words, and understood to be the first person indicative present of an obsolete verb to kiss, to teach, direct, or affirm, with the pronoun of the first person, is only the Anglo-Saxon ibim of an adverb derived from a participle, and corresponding exactly to the German gewiss, meaning surely, certainli/. The erroneous explanation above alluded to is sometimes found where one would hardly expect to meet it, as, for instance, in the Glossary to Scott's editUo. of Sir Tristram. Lect. XV. MODES OF INFLEXION. 233 weak inflexion is the regular, the strong the irregular, form of the older grammarians ; but, according to the theory now in vogue, the strong is the more ancient and regular of the two modes of inflexion, and the terms ought to be reversed. The suffrage of children, who are acute philologists, and extremely apt in seizing the analogies of language, and therefore credible witnesses, is in favour of the regu- larity and linguistic propriety of the weak inflexion. They say 1 ruuned, 1 rided, and the like ; and Cobbett, an unlearned, indeed, but excellent practical grammarian, as well as some better instructed philologists, have seriously proposed to reform our grammar by re- jecting the strong preterites and participles, and inflecting all verbs according to the regular or weak method.* But, whatever may be thought of the relative antiquity of the forms, the notion on which the new nomenclature rests is a fanciful one, and it is unfortunate that terms so inappropriate should have been sanctioned by such high authority, and so generally adopted by grammarians. Had the two modes been called, respectively, old and new, the names would have expressed a historical fact, or at least a probable theory, but it would be easy to assign as sound and as obvious reasons for designating the two classes of variation by ascribing to them colour or weight, and for calling them black and white, or heavy and light, as those alleged for the use of the terms strong and weak. It certainly could not have been difficult to invent appellations more appropriate in character, and it is to be regretted that the difficulties of grammatical science should be augmented by increasing the number of fallacious terms in its vocabulary. § 7. Various theories have been suggested to explain the origin of the cnanges of forms in different classes of words in inflected languages. These I cannot here discuss or eveo. detail. It must suffice to observe that, with respect to the strong iuflexions, or those * The tendency of modern English to the more extended use of the weak inflexion is so powerful, that, unless it he checked by increased familiarity with our earlier literature, it is not improbable that the strong declensions and con- jugations will disappear altogether. A comparison of the modern poets with Chaucer, and even much later writers, will show that hundreds of verbs formerly inflected with the letter-change are now conjugated by augmentation. Every new English dictionary diminishes the number of irregular verbs. Webster tells us that swollen, as the participle of swell, is now nearly obsolete. Popular speech, however, still preserves this form, as well as many other genuine old pre- terites and participles, which are no longer employed in written English. Even heat (pronounced hgt), now a gross vulgarism, occurs as the participle of to heat as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century. See Holland's Pliny, ii. 393, and Daniel iii. 19, in the original edition of the standard translation of the Bible. 234 ORIGIN OF INFLEXIONS. Leot. XV. consisting in a letter-change, as, present run, past ran, singular man, plural men, it is at least a plausible supposition that they originated in different pronunciations of the same word in different local dialects, the respective pronunciations each assuming a distinct significance, as the dialects melted into one speech. As to the weak inflexions, those consisting in the addition of vocal elements, it has been conjectured that these elements were in all cases originally pronouns, auxiliaries, or participles which have coalesced with the verb or other root. In general the inflexions were adopted so early, and the pronouns or other absorbed words have become so much modified, that they can no longer be recognised in their combination with the inflected word. But there are some instances where we possess historical evidence of such a coalescence. The future of the verb in all the Eomance languages is a case of this sort. Thus amare', amaras, amara, the future of the Spanish verb amar, is simply amar he, I have to love; amar has, thou hast to love; amar ha, he has to love.* In the closely allied Portuguese the constituents of the future may still be used sepa- rately, and even an oblique case inserted between them ; as d a r - lhe-hei, I will give him, agastar-se-ha, he will be angry, t This was also common in Old Castilian, and we find in Beuter such combinations as castigarosemos, evidently os hemos de castigar, we will punish you. The formation of many of the other tenses may readily be traced in the older literature of other Peninsular dialects. Thus we find in the Catalan of King Jaume,t the first person plural of the conditional, with an oblique case, here a dative, inserted : n'os donar los niem 90 q valien, "we would pay them for them [the horses] what they were worth."§ * The Mceso-Gothic verb haban, to have, was used as a future auxiliary, not as a past. Thus, in John xii. 26 : " jah parei im ik, jjaruh. sa andbahts meins visan habaib," " and where I am, there my servant shall be." And when used in the past tense, it still involved the future corresponding to the would and should of the English Bible in a similar construction, as in John vi. 6 " ip silba vissa, batci habaida taujan," " for ho himself knew what he would do;" and John vi. 71 : "Quabuh pan pana iudan seimonis iskariotu sa auk habaida ina galevjan." " He spake of judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him." t [Likewise in the Provencal we find dir vos ai, I will tell you, and dir vos em, we will tell yon. On the subject discussed in the text, see some interesting remarks in Max Muller's Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 216 seq. — Ed.] J ' Conquesta de Valencia por lo serenissim e catholich princep d5 Jaume,' Valencia, 1515. § In the Chronicle of Don Pero Niflo, p. 56, we find the complicated com- bination, face rnos la han dejar, "they will make us abandon it." The compound tenses were sometimes used in Italian down to the end of the fifteenth century. Savonarola generally employs the inflected future, but in a Lect. XV. ORIGIN OF INFLEXIONS. 235 There is a more interesting example of a newly-formed inflexion in languages cognate with our own, and I shall point out other remark- able instances of a tendency in the same direction, in discussing the Old-English inflexions.* The Icelandic has a reflexive form of the verb, used also as a passive, the characteristic of which is the con- sonantal ending st or z : thus the active infinitive at kalla, to call, makes the reflexive kallast or kallaz. This was anciently written s c or s k instead of s t , and there is no doubt that it was originally simply a contraction of the reflexive pronoun s i k , corre- sponding to our self, or more exactly to the French reflexive s e , so that at kallast was equivalent to to call one's self, or the French s'appeler. The form in question was at first purely reflexive. It gradually assumed a passive force, and there are a few instances of its employment as such by classic writers in the best ages of that literature.! In modern Swedish and Danish it is a true passive. I dwell upon this philological fact the more, because it is one of the few cases where we can show the origin of an inflexion, and it is also specially interesting as an instance of the recent development of a passive conjugation in a language belonging to a family which, in common with most modern European tongues, has rejected the passive form altogether.! Although the theories I have mentioned serve to furnish an explanation of many cases of both weak and strong in- flexion, there are numerous flexional phenomena which they fail to account for. We must seek the rationale of these in more recondite principles, or, in the present state of philological knowledge, confess our inability to propose a solution ; and we are sometimes tempted to maintain with Becker, that language, as an organism, has its laws of development and growth, by virtue of which the addition of vocal elements to the root is as purely a natural germination as the sprouting of a bud at the end of a stem or in the axilla of a leaf.§ No theory of agglutination or coalescence will explain the general resemblance of the genitive singular to the nominative plural in English nouns, sermon delivered " adi viii. di giugno m.cccc.kxxxv." p. 12, he lias, " e dicoti die se idio ha premiare huomini almondo ha premiare gli christiani," * .See Lecture XVHI. f Eigi munu ver pat gera, segir SkarpheSinn (Mat fast mun annat til elld- kveykna, Nj&la, c. 125. Eigi muni fast slikr kostr ; Fommanna Sogur iii. 73, RauSgrani sast pa ekki. Forn. Sog. NoriS. ii. 244. % [In the same way in Latin, the r, which is the sign of the passive voice, and which is the representative of s, is probably the same as se, the verb being originally reflexive, and acquiring subsequently the passive meaning. — Ed.] § [There can however be little doubt that all inflexions were originally separate words. Most of them can be traced back to their original forms ; and even where this cannot be done, we may presume from analogy that such was originally the case. See Notes and Illustrations (B), On the Origin of Inflexions. — Ed.J 236 ORIGIN OF INFLEXIONS. LeCT. XT. and the like coincidence between the same cases in the masculine and feminine genders of Latin substantives and adjectives. The characteristic endings. of the genders, and the identity of form between the nominative, accusative, and vocative cases in the neuter gender of adjectives and substantives in both Greek and Latin, are peculiarities of an equally obscure character.* Linguistics, as a science, is still in its infancy, and its accumulation of facts is but just begun. We shall doubtless hereafter penetrate much deeper into the mysteries of language, but yet we must resign ourselves to the conclusion, that speech, like other branches of human inquiry, will be found to have its ultimate facts, the detection of whose causative principles is beyond our reach. * Archbishop Whately makes the following suggestion in his annotation on Lord Bacon's sixteenth essay : — " In that phenomenon in language, that, both in the Greek and Latin, nouns of the neuter gender, denoting things, invariably had the nominative and the accusative the same, or rather had an accusative only, employed as a nominative when required, — may there not be traced an indistinct consciousness of the persuasion that a mere thing is not capable of being an agent, which a person only can really be ; and that the possession of power, strictly so called, by phy- sical causes, is not conceivable, or their capacity to maintain, any more than to produce at first, the system of the universe? — whose continued existence, as well as its origin, seems to depend on the continued operation of the great Creator. May there not be in this an admission that the laws of nature pre- suppose an agent, and are incapable of being the cause of their own ob- servance ? " It is with diffidence that I venture any criticism on so profound a thinker and so accurate a writer as the distinguished scholar from whom I quote ; but it appears to me that this view of the case supposes grammatical gender to be es sentially indicative of sex, that sex is a necessary attribute of all personality, including that of the Deity, and that want of sex distinguishes the thing from ihe person. The Greeks as well as the Latins, generally at least, employed gender as a mere grammatical sign, for the names of thousands of things in both languages are masculine and feminine, and on the other hand beings are in very many cases designated by words of "the neuter gender. The words of this latter class, it is true, are generally derivatives, diminutives, and the like ; but I am aware of no reason to suppose that in any stage of the Greek or Latin, whatever may have been the case in the older tongues from which they are derived, the masculine and feminine forms alone were capable of expressing personality. The neuter adjective to ®ihov is used absolutely for the Divine Being or Essence by Herodotus and by jEschylus. The chorus in the Agamem- non applies it to the inspiration of the Divinity — 1083, XO. xp4itreiv eoiKev b.tj.. Plural. ner-e-didon. ner-e-didon. ner-e-didon. properly, how did itself, or the Anglo- Saxon dide, was formed, and how it received the meaning of a preterite. In dide the final de is not termination, but it is the root, and the first syllable di is a reduplication of the root, the fact being that all preterites of old, or, as they are called, strong verbs, were formed, as in Greek and Sanskrit, by means of reduplication. The root do in Anglo-Saxon is the same as the root t he in tithemi in Greek, and the Sanskrit root dhd in dadhdmi. Anglo-Saxon dide would therefore correspond to Sanskrit dadhau, I placed." — Lectures on the Science of Language, pp. 219-223. —Ed.] ( 240 ) LECTURE XVI. GRAMMATICAL INFLEXIONS. § 1. Arrangement of period. § 2. Latin inflexions. § 3. Value of Latin grammar. § 4. Comparison of the advantages of uninflected and inflected languages. § 5. Collocation of words. II. § 1. The general principle, which the philological facts stated in the last lecture serve to illustrate, is that, in fully inflected languages like the Latin, the grammatical relations, as well as many other conditions of words, are indicated by their form ; in languages with few inflexions, like English, by their positions in the period, and by the aid of certain small words called auxiliaries and particles, themselves insignificant, but serving to point out the connexion between other words. In the proposition which was taken as an example, sheep fear man, oves timent hominem, the English words were each employed in the simplest form in which they exist in the language, without any variation for case, number, or person, whereas, in the corresponding Latin phrase, every word was varied from the radical, or inflected, according to its gram- matical relations to other words in the period. Hence it will be seen that, for determining the relations between the constituents of a Latin period, the attention is first drawn to the inflected syllables of the words, and only secondarily to their import. These syllables may be called the mechanical part of grammar, because, though they probably once had an intelligible significance in themselves, yet that had been lost before Roman literature had a being, and so far back as we can trace the language they were always, as they now are, mere signs of external relations and accidental conditions of the words to which they are applied. When the first inflected word in a Latin sentence is uttered, its relations to the entire proposition are approximately known by its ending, its ear-mark ; and the mind of the listener is next occupied in sorting, out of the words that follow, another, whose termination tallies with that of the first ; the process is repeated with the second, and so on to the end of the period, the sense beiDg often absolutely suspended until you arrive at the key-word, which may be the last in the whole Leot. XVI. ARRANGEMENT OF PERIOD. 241 sentence. We may illustrate the mental process thus gone through, by imagining the words composing an English sentence to be numbered one, two, three, and so on, but to be pronounced or written promiscuously, without any regard to the English rules of position and succession. Let it be agreed that the nominative, or subject of the verb, shall be marked one, the verb two, and the objective case, or object of the verb, three. Thus, William 1, struck 2, Peter 3. It is evident that, if we once become perfectly familiar with the application of the numbers, so that one instantly suggests to us the grammatical notion of the subject or nominative, two of the verb, and three of the object or objective, the numeral being in every case the sign of the grammatical category, the position of the words becomes unimportant, and it is indifferent whether I say William 1, struck 2, Peter 3, or Peter 3, struck 2, William 1. The subject, the verb, and the object remain the same in both forms, and the meaning of course must be the same. English-speaking persons, in practising such lessons, would at first, no doubt, mentally re- arrange the period, by placing the words in the order of their numbers, according to the law of English syntax, just as we do in construing or beginning to read a foreign language with a syn- tactical system different from our own. This in long sentences would be very inconvenient, because the words and their numheit must be retained in the memory until the sentence is completely spoken or read through, and then arranged afterwards ; but practice of this sort would be found a useful grammatical exercise, and at the same time would facilitate the comprehension of the syntactical principles of languages where the meaning of the period is not determined by position. This method of illustrating the principles of syntactical arrangement may seem fanciful, but nevertheless numbers have been employed by very high English authority, in actual literary composition, as a means of marking grammatical relation. Sir Philip Sidney, in the third book of the ' Arcadia, introduces a sonnet " with some art curiously written," in which the words are arranged chiefly according to metrical convenience ; but their relations indicated by numbers printed over each word. There is, however, a difference between his system of numeration and that which I have used in the example just given. He applies the same number to all the words composing each separate member of the period, because, in a long proposition containing many members, the numbers would be difficult to retain, if running on consecutively. Thus the nominative, the verb, the objective, and the adverbial phrase of qualification, composing the first member, are all marked one ; the same elements of the second member all marked two, and so of the rest. The sonnet is as follows : — UNO. LAN. II 242 ARRANGEMENT OF PERIOD. user -o.n. IS 8 12 3 Vertue, leautie, and speech, did strike, wound, charme, 12 8 128 My heart, eyes, eares, with wonder, love, delight, 12 8 12 8 First, second, last, did binde, enforce, and arme, 12 8 12 8 His works, shews, suits, with wit, grace, and vows' might. 12 3 12 8 Thus honour, liking, trust, much, farre, and deepe, 12 8 12 8 Held, pierc't, posses't, my judgment, sense and will, 1 2 8 12 8 Till wrong, contempt, deceit, did grow, steale, creepe, 12 8 12 8 Bands, favour, faith, to breake, defile, and kill. 1 2 8 12 3 Then griefe, unkindnesse, proofe, tooke, kindled, thought, 1 2 8 12 3 Well grounded, noble, due, spite, rage, disdaine, 12 8 12 8 But, ah, alas, (in vaine) my minde, sight, thought) 1 2 8 12 8 Doth him, his face, his words, leave, shun, refrainc. 12 8 12 8 For no thing, time, nor place, can loose, quench, ease, 1 2 8 12 8 Mine owne, embraced, sought, knot, fire, disease. The first four verses transposed according to the rules of English syntax would read thus : — i lii 1 Vertue did strike my heart with wonder, 2 2 2 2 2 Beautie „ wound „ eyes „ love, 8 8 8 8 3 And speech „ charme „ eares „ delight. li 11 1 The first did bind his works with wit, 2 2 2 2 2 „ second „ enforce „ shews „ grace, 3 8 8 8 3 And „ last „ arme „ suits „ vows' might. A like example occurs in some complimentary verses addressed by Edward Ingham to the celebrated John Smith, and printed in Smith's History of Virginia :' — IS 8 13 8 Truth, travayle, and neglect, pure, painefull, most unkinde, 1.28 1 2 8 Doth prove, consume, dismay, the soule, the corps,* the minde. * On this use of corps for living body, see Notes and Illustrations. Lect. XVI. LATIN INFLEXIONS. 243 Again, we may suppose, that instead of numbering the words ac- cording to their order in English syntax, the subject, verb and object are respectively distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, a, b, c. It is evident that in this case also the position of the words might be varied at pleasure without affecting the sense. Or, to come at once to the actual fact, as it exists in many languages, let us agree that the nominative case of all nouns of the masculine gender shall end in the syllable -us, which will then be equivalent to one in the numeral notation ; the third person singular of the past tense of active verbs shall end in the syllable -it, which will correspond to number two ; and the objective shall terminate in the syllable - u m , answer- ing to three. This would in fact be the Latin system, except that there is a greater variety of Latin endings than those I have men- tioned. The terminations here answer the same purpose as the numbers, and it is plain that the order of the words in the period becomes grammatically indifferent : — Gulielmus percussit Petrum, Gulielmus Petrum percussit, Petrum percussit Gulielmus, Petrum Gulielmus percussit, Percussit Gulielmus Petrum, Percussit Petrum Gulielmus, all being equally clear, and all meaning the same thing. "While therefore this simple phrase admits of but one arrangement in Englishi the Latin syntax allows half a dozen, all equally unequivocal in meaning. § 2. Every Latin verb has numerous terminations, each of which indicates whether the action expressed by it is past, present or future, whether its subject is singular or plural, and whether it is in the first, second or third person. Every noun has several terminations, each of which determines its case, nominative, genitive (possessive), and dative, accusative or ablative (objective), and the like, its number, and generally also its gender. Every adjective has many endings, each of which denotes the same accidents as those of the noun. In many instances, the endings of the noun and adjective indicative of case, number and gender are the same in both classes of words ; in others, they are different, but whether like or unlike, they, and those of the verb also, correspond to each other, so that when the forms are once thoroughly mastered, it is in general easy to decide, by the terminations alone, without reference to position, to what noun a particular adjective belongs, and what are the relations between the noun and the verb. Hence, in English, the form deter- mines little, the position much ; in Latin, the relative importance of the two conditions is reversed, and, comparatively speaking, order is nothing, form is everything. The Latins could employ foreign 244 LATIN INFLEXIONS. LECT. XV'I. names or other words, only by clipping or stretching them to their own standard, and not only conforming; them to their orthoepy, but to their syntax also. Accordingly, the Celtic, Teutonic and other barbarous common and proper nouns, which occur so often in Roman history, are so much disfigured by changes in the radical combinations of letters, and especially in their charncteristic termi nations, that it is difficult to detect their original elements, and they aid us little in discovering the forms which marked the non-Roman dialects of those periods. The modern writers of the sixteenth century — a period, when the European languages were little studied out of their native territory — resorted to Latin as a means of communication, whenever they wished to make themselves understood beyond the limits of their respective countries, and the rigid syntax of that language compelled them to perform similar operations on the modem names which they introduced into their writings. The historian De Thou, or Thuanus, as he called himself, Latinized the names of his per- sonages in so strange a fashion that, to follow him, one must know not only the inflexions, but the etymology, both of the Latin and of the modern languages to which these names belong. Thus the French family name Entraigues, etymologically, entre les aigues (a i g u e s being an old form for e a u x, waters), and meaning between- the-waters, is, for the convenience of declension, converted into I n- teramnas,a Latin form, of corresponding etymology. The native name of the celebrated Erasmus was Gheraerd Gheraerds. The root of Gheraerd is a verb signifying to desire, but the name was very repugnant to Roman orthography and syntax, and the great scholar Latinized his preenomen into Desiderius, and Gracized his sur- name into Erasmus, both signifying the same thing. In like manner, the literary name of the Reformer Melanchthon is a transla- tion of the German Schwa rzerde, or Blackearth, and that of Oecolampadius is a Greek version of his German family appellative Hau sschein.* § 3. But to return. From what has been said of the structure of the Latin, as compared with that of the English period, it is obvious that the analysis to which a proposition is subjected in the mind of the listener, is conducted by very different processes in Latin and * Bolton, in his ffypercritica (Haslewood's Collection, ii. 252), says : " In this fine and meer sclioolish folly, after that, George Buchanan is often taken ; not without casting his reader into obscurity. For in his histories, where he speaketh of one Wisehart, so little was his ear able to brook the name, as that, tianslating the sense thereof into Greek, of Wisehart comes forth unto us Sophocardius." The Fardle of Facions gives us the converse of this practice, and calls the historian T a c i t u s , Cornelius the still. " For Cornelius the stylle, in his firste book of his yerely exploictes, called in Latine Annales," &c. &c., chap. iiii. s. iii., edition of 1555 ; reprint of 1812, p. 312. Lect. XVI. VALUE OF LATIN GRAMMAR. 245 English. In the English sentence, the proportion of words whose form fixes their grammatical category is too small to serve as a guide to the meaning. The logical relations must first be determined, and the syntactical relations inferred from them. In Latin, on the con- trary, you first, so to speak, spell out the syntax, and thence infer the sense of the period. In other words, to parse an English sentence, you must first understand it; to understand a Latin period, you must first parse it. And in this predominance of the formal over the logical lies the exceeding value of the Latin as a grammatical dis- cipline — not as a necessary means of comprehending or using our own tongue — but as a universal key to all language, a general type of comparison whereby to try all other modes of human speech. The English student who has mastered the Latin may be assured that he has thereby learned one half of what he has to learn in acquiring any Continental language. The thorough comprehension of this one syntax has stored his mind, once for all, with linguistic principles, of general application, which, without this study, must be acquired over again, in the shape of independent concrete facts, with every new language he commences. The Latin syntax, in fact, embraces and typifies all the rest ; and he who possesses himself of it, as a preliminary to varied linguistic attainment and research, will have made a preparation analogous to that of the naturalist, who familiarizes himself with the scientific classification and nomencla- ture of the study he pursues, by the critical study of some perfectly organized type, before he attempts to investigate the characteristics of inferior species. § 4. An important advantage of a positional and auxiliary, over a flexional, syntax, is that the chances of grammatical error are diminished .in about the same proportion as the number of forms is reduced, and, accordingly, we observe that the mistakes of bad speakers in English are never in the way of position, not often in particles or auxiliaries, but almost uniformly in the right employ- ment of inflexions, such as the use of the singular verb with a plural noun, the confounding of the preterite with the past participle, or the employment of the strong inflexion for the weak, or the weak for the strong. The double system of conjugation in our verbs, that with the letter-change, and that by augmentation, is a fertile source of blunders, not only with children, but with older persons ; and for want of that particular exercise, our English memories are so little retentive of forms, that even distinguished writers are sometimes convicted of grave transgressions in accidence.* * I noticed in the last lecture the confusion between the causative forms to fell, to lay, to set, and their respective simple verbs fall, lie, and sit, but almost all verbs with the strong inflexion are subject to erroneous conjugation, espc- 24b' COMPARISON OF ADVANTAGES OF Leot. XVI. Inflected languages have an important advantage over those whose words are invariable, in their greater freedom from equivocation. In a perfect inflected grammar, in a system where, for instance, the forms of the genders and cases of nouns, adjectives, articles and pro- nouns, should be so varied that no single ending could be used in different connexions, or for different purposes ; where the distinctions of number, person, mood, tense and condition, in the verbs, should have each its appropriate and exclusive form ; and where the rules of verbal and prepositional regimen should be uniform and without exception ; in such a system, the meaning of an author might be obscure from profoundness of thought, or vague from the indefinite- ness of the vocabulary, but it could hardly be equivocal. The passages in classic authors where either one of two meanings is, grammatically speaking, equally probable, are not very numerous, and where they actually occur, it usually arises from neglecting the inflexional, and employing a simpler, construction, or from the fact that one inflexion is obliged to serve for more than one purpose. In the illustration just used, I showed that the relative positions of the nominative and the objective were indifferent in Latin; both might follow the verb, both might precede it, the nominative might go before and the objective after, as in English, or the direct contrary ; Gulielmus Petrum p e r c u s s i t , in the order nominative, ob- jective, verb, being just as clear and unequivocal as when the objective follows the verb. We have in English a remarkable construction, borrowed, probably, from the Latin, by which, in a dependent propo- sition, the objective with the infinitive is put for the nominative with a finite verb. Thus, " I think him to be a man of talents," in- stead of " 1 think that he is a man of talents." Now, awkward as this is, its meaning is perfectly unequivocal. The Greeks and the Latins employed the same form, but much more extensively, and by no means with the infinitive of neuter verbs alone, as to be, and the like, but with active or transitive verbs, which themselves took and governed another objective or accusative.* This is one of the cases cially if the preterite and past participle differ from each other, as well as from the indicative present. The verbs to go and to see are particularly unlucky in the treatment they receive. Had went is very often heard from ignorant per- sons, and I have known a gentleman in an important station in public life, a close personal and political friend of an American chief magistrate, who often prefaced his confidential explanations of his votes, by saying, " I have sawed Mr. Blank this morning, and heard so and so from him." * We find, in Early English, examples of the objective before other infinitives than that of the substantive verb. Thus, in Genesis xxxvii. 7, older Wycliffite version : " I wenede vs to bynden hondfullis in the feelde, and myn hondful as to ryse." The modern construction, " I saw him go," and the like, is not ao analogous form, but of a different origin. Lect. XVI. UNINFLECTED AND INFLECTED LANGUAGES. 247 where a departure from general syntactical principles may produce an uncertainty of meaning. "When Pyrrhus consulted the oracle as to the result of his meditated war with Rome, the reply was, " I declare you, Pyrrhus, the Romans to be able to conquer!" Now in Greek and Latin, as we have said, there was no rule of position requiring the objective to follow the verb which governed it, and it was therefore doubtful whether the oracle meant, " I declare you to be able to conquer the Romans," or, " I declare the Romans to be able to conquer you." In English, on the other hand, so much depends on position, and the possible varieties of position between two logically connected words are so many, that it is often extremely difficult to frame a long sentence, where it shall not be grammatically uncertain to which of two or three subjects or antecedents a predicate or relative belongs. Hence, we are continually driven to turn from the dead letter to the living thought, to project ourselves into the mind of the author, in order to determine the grammatical connexion of his words; to divine his special meaning from the general tenour of his discourse, rather than to infer it from his syntax. Of all English writers, Spenser shows himself most independent of the laws of position. He disregards altogether the common grammatical rule of referring the relative to the last antecedent, and trusts entirely to the sagacity of the reader to detect the who in the multitude of hes and shes that go before it.* Apart from the point of equivocation, which does not often create any real logical difficulty in comprehending an author, however much we may be embarrassed in parsing him, I do not think that, with respect to precision of expression, or the nice discri- mination of delicate distinctions of thought and shades of sentiment, inflected languages have any advantage. These qualities of speech are independent of grammatical form. They are determined by the inherent expressiveness of individual words, far more than by their syntactical relations, and it would be difficult, to produce an example of a subtlety of thought expressible by inflexion, which could not be conveyed with equal precision and certainty by proper uninfiected words with the aid of particles and auxiliaries, f * Tb3 description of the combat between Sir Guyon and Pyrochles, in canto xi. book i. of the Faerie Queene, is a characteristic example of this grammatical confusion. f Doubtless habuissem is a more elegant and convenient form than / might, could, would, or should-have-had, which grammars give as its equivalents, but our varieties of expression, awkward as they are, more than compensate us, by their distinctions of meaning, for the simplicity of the one word, which the Roman used for so many. Fontenelle said: -'Si je recommencais la vie, je ferais tout ce que j'ai frit." . Did he mean I would do, or I should do ? In all such cases, the context, or tne circumstances under which the words were 248 COLLOCATION Or WORLte. Lect. XVI. § 5. Fixedness of position is an essential quality of syntax in languages whero grammatical relations are not determined by in- flexion, because position only can indicate the relation between a given word and those with which it is connected by particles and auxiliaries. But though the position of words must be a fixed one, yet it does not necessarily follow the natural order of thought in any given case, but may be entirely independent of logical sequence, and of course arbitrary. Of this there are numerous examples in English. Except when we depart from the idiom of the language, by poetic or rheto- rical license, we must place first, the subject, then the copula or predicate verb, and then the object, as, for example, William struck Peter, William being the subject or agent, struck the verb, Peter the object or sufferer. Now, this may be the logical order of thought, or it may not, according to circumstances, but nevertheless the law of position in English is inflexible. If, for example, the words just sup- posed are uttered in reply to the question, Who struck Peter ? then the grammatical rule and the logical order of arrangement coincide, inasmuch as the personality of the agent would first suggest itself to the respondent. But had the question been, Whom did William strike? it is equally clear that the name of the object, Peter, would first rise in the mind, and logically should be first expressed by the lips. So, had it been asked, What did William do to Peter? the thought and word struck logically would, and grammatically should, take precedence. It is easy to imagine that, without any question put, circumstances may make first and most prominent in the mind of the speaker, either the subject, the predicate or the object, and it is a most important convenience to him to be able to observe what, in the particular case, is the natural order of thought.* In inflected spoken, must be called in to decide. In English, the auxiliary determines the sense. [Southey says, " They may talk as they will of the dead languages. Our auxiliary verbs give us a power which the ancients, with all their varieties of mood and inflexion of tense, never could obtain" (I%e Doctor, p. 1). To the same effect William von Humboldt, speaking of the transition from a synthetic to an analytic structure of language, says : " The practical convenience of expressing the sense supersedes the fanciful pleasure originally felt in combining elementary sounds with their full-toned syllables, each pregnant with meaning. The inflected forms are broken up into prepositions and auxiliaries. Men sacri- fice other advantages to that of ready understanding ; for without doubt this analytic system not only diminishes the labour of the intellect, but in particular cases it attains a degree of precision which is reached with greater difficulty by the synthetic structure." Quoted by Sir Edmund Head in his instructive work Shall and Will, p. 5.— Ed.] In discussions upon the relations between the logical order of thought and Lect. XVI. COLLOCATION OF WORDS. 249 languages, this may very generally he done, inasmuch as the form of every word indicates with certainty its grammatical case. It is obvious that the power of arranging the period at will, of always placing at the most conspicuous point, the prominent word, the key-note of the emotion we seek to excite, is a logical and rhetorical advantage of the greatest moment. If no such motive of position exists, the speaker may consult the laws of euphonic sequence, or other times argued, that we are to inquire into the construction of the proposi- tion as abstracted from all circumstances which might affect the order of thought and expression in the mind of either speaker or hearer. This is to suppose a case which, in articulate or written language, cannot exist, and in point of fact seldom, if ever, does exist in purely intellectual processes. No man speaks or writes without a motive, and that motive originates in circumstances that neces- sarily modify the order in which thought rises to the mind, and words to the lips or pen. We know language only in its concrete form, and the grammatical and philo- logical question always is, What is the order of thought under such or such circumstances ? The rhetorical question is still more complicated : How am I, tinder the circumstnnces special to me, to arrange my words, that they may pro- duce the right impiession on the mind or heart of my hearer under the circum- stances that are operating on' him ? This, indeed, is purely a matter of art, and belongs as little to philology, as do metaphysical inquiries into the abstract laws of thought. Men are usually so much under the control of subjective emotion that they utter their words without calculating their effect beforehand, and they habitually arrange them according to the syntactical laws of the language they are speaking, by a process which long practice has rendered mechanical and un- conscious. The circumstances which affect the order of thought in an inde- pendent proposition, uttered not as a reply to a question, nor with any reference to the conditions peculiar to the person addressed, are too various even to admit of generalization or classification. An example or two must suffice. To take the proposition I have so often employed as an illustration, William struck Peter. If we suppose Peter, as a son or relative, to be invested with special interest in the eyes of the speaker," and William to be comparatively a stranger, the name, as the representative of the personality of Peter, would be first in the order of thought, and in languages where, as in Latin, expression is free to conform to the thought, first in the order of words also. Hence the natural arrangement of the proposition would be: Peter [objective] struck William [nominative]. . The order of thought and speech would be the same, if the action were re- versed, and Peter were the agent, William the sufferer. Again, if the blow were a very severe one, the character of the act would be most prominent in the mind of the speaker, and the order of expression would be : struck Peter [ob- jective] William [nominative]. In general, it may be said that the relative emphasis with which the different words composing a proposition are uttered, if it could be exactly measured, would serve as a guide to the place of the words in the logical order of succession, the most emphatic words coining first. In many languages, the order of arrangement is inverted, or at least changed, in interrogative sentences. In others, interrogative pronouns, particles, or aux- iliary verbal forms, very often serve to put the question independently of the order of the words. Among the great European tongues, the Italian is less bound to a fixed sequence in interrogative sentences than any other. 250 COLLOCATION OF WORDS. Lect. XVI, metrical convenience, and order his words in such succession of arti- culate sounds as falls most agreeably upon the ear. Accordingly, in languages which have this flexibility of structure, we observe that orators, when they would rouse the passions of their audience, arrange their periods so as to give to the emphatic words the most effective positions; when, on the contrary, they would soothe the minds, or allay the irritation of their hearers, they seek a flowing and melodious collocation of sounds, or sink words suggestive of offence, by placing them in unemphatic parts of the sentence. Thus, to a certain extent, iu these tongues, a speaker might accomplish by mere collocation what in others he must effect by selection, and, with the same words, he might frame a sentence which would excite the in- dignation of his audience, and another which, while communicating precisely the same fact, should, by making a different element prominent in the order of utterance, be received with little emotion. For the complete illustration of what I have been saying it would be necessary to resort to more of Greek and Latin quotation than would be appropriate, but classical scholars will find in those literatures many examples of great skill in ordering words with reference to effect. Demosthenes, in particular, exhibits consummate dexterity in this art. At his pleasure, he separates his lightning and his thunder by an interval that allows his hearer half to forget the coming detonation, or he instantaneously follows up the dazzling flash with a pealing explosion, that stuns, prostrates, and crushes the stoutest opponent. English poetry, and that of the highest character, is full of instances where the rhetoric has overpowered the grammar, and the poet has availed himself of what is called poetic license, to place his words in such order as to give them their best effect, without regard to the rigid rules of our obstinate syntax. Take, for example, this couplet from Byron's ' Adieu :' " The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew." Here the last line is far more effective than it would have been if the nominative had preceded the verb : "The wild sea-mew shrieks." In the first line, no such change of position was required in eitler member, because the nouns wind and "breakers are of themselves suggestive of the sounds which belong to them, whereas form and power of flight are the ideas which most naturally couple themselves with the name of the bird. So, in ' King Lear :' " Such bursts of horrid thunder. Such groans of roaring wind and rain I never Remember to have heard ! " Lect. XVI. COLLOCATION OF WORDS. 251 Here trie force of the passage would have been much weakened by following the rule of placing the objective after the verb : " I never remember to have heard such burets of thunder," &e. And in ' Samuel :' " Nabal is his name, and folly is with him," is far more forcible to those who know that the name Nabal means a fool, than if the usual order, His name is Nabal, had been observed ; Fool is his name, and folly is with him, than, His name is fool, and folly is with him. So, in Jacob's reply to Pharaoh, the shortness and emptiness of human life are more strikingly expressed by the phrase, " Pew and evil -have the days of the years of my life been," than by the more familiar English arrangement of the same words. It was not for reasons of metrical convenience, but from a deep knowledge of the laws of thought, that, in announcing the argument of his great epic, Milton enumerates the several branches of the subject in a dependent form, before he introduces the comparatively insignificant governing verb, which does not appear till the sixth line of the introductory invocation : " Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse," &c. Here the whole great drama, in its successive scenes, man's first sin, its consequences temporal and spiritual, his redemption by Christ and final salvation, is brought before us at once in all its majesty, weakened by no tame conventionalities of introduction. The Anglo-Saxon, although its original variety of inflexion had been greatly reduced before the date of its most flourishing literature, still retained a good deal of freedom of collocation. The Anglo-Saxon version of the New Testament generally follows its original in the order of its syntax, and early English writers employed, in prose at least, greater liberty of position than is now practised. It is an interesting observation, that the modern Italian has inherited from its Latin mother a great freedom of periodic arrangement, though with a marked inferiority in power of inflexion. It has an immense advantage over the French, in variety of admissible collocations of words in a given sentence, as well as in the - greater number of allied forms of expression. The French inflexions, indeed, as has been before observed, are much less complicated and complete to the ear 252 COLLOCATION OF WORDS. Leot. XVI than to the eye ; and if we strip the accidence of the flexional syl- lables or letters which in the spoken tongue are silent, the distinct variations in the forms of words are far fewer than they appear in the written language. But the difference between French and Italian in flexibility of syntax does not depend upon this circumstance alone, for Italian has nearly as great a superiority in liberty of syntactical order over the Spanish, which possesses full and distinctly marked in- flexions. The freedom of the Italian syntax is to be ascribed in part to the fact that, it is both an aboriginal and, to a great extent, an unmixed tongue, spoken by the descendants of those to whom the maternal Latin was native, and retaining the radical forms and gram- matical capabilities of that language, whereas French and Spanish are strangers to the soil, corrupted by a large infusion of foreign ingre- dients, and spoken by nations alien in descent from those who employed the common source of both, as their mother-tongue. The wretched servitude under which Italy has for centuries alternately struggled and slumbered has prevented the free employment of its language on such themes as to bring out fully its great capacities, and make it known to intellectual Europe as an intellectual speech ; but its many-sidedness and catholicity of expression, its rhetorical facility of presenting a thought in so many different aspects, render it valuable as a linguistic study, independently of the claims of its literature. In general it may be said, that in inflected languages the point of view in which the subject presents itself to the mind of the speaker, is the determining principle of the collocation of words in periods, but at the same time, they allow such an arrangement as to enable the speaker to suit the structure of the sentence to the supposed con- dition of the mind of the hearer, or the impression which he wishes to produce upon him. The natural order in which thought developes itself in the mind of one already cognizant of the facts, agitated with the emotion, or possessed of the conclusions which he wishes to com- municate to another, is not by any means necessarily that which would be most readily intelligible to a mind ignorant of the facts, or most impressive to one intellectually or morally otherwise affected towards the subject. Hence the power of diversified arrangement of words in inflected languages is valuable, not merely because it per- mits a speaker to follow what is to him a logical order of sequence, but because a master of language, who knows the human heart also, may thereby accommodate the forms of his' speech to the endless variety of characters, conditions, passions and intelligences, of which our discordant humanity is made up. There is another point which must not be overlooked. An in- flected language, with periods compacted of words knit each to each in unbroken succession, is eminently favourable to continuity of liacr. XVI. NOTES AtfD ILLUSTRATIONS. 253 thought. A parenthetical qualification interrupts the chain of dis- course much less abruptly, if it is syntactically connected with the period, than if it is, as is usual in English, interjectionally thrown in. It is said to be one of the tests of a perfect style, that you cannot change, omit, or even transpose, a word in a period, without weakening or perverting the meaning of the author. Although this may be true of English, I do not think it by any means applicable to inflected languages like the Greek or Latin, so far at least as the order of words is concerned, for there seem to be many constructions in which position is not only grammatically, but logically and rhe- torically, indifferent. In the rough draft of one of Plato's works, the first few words were written by way of experiment in half a dozen different arrangements, and the famous stanza in the * Orlando Furioso ' of Ariosto, descriptive of a storm at sea : tl Stendon le nubi un tenebroso velo," &c, is said to have been composed by the poet in ten times as many forms. Doubtless in such a wide variety of sequences, there were some discoverable differences of meaning ; but in the main, both the philosopher and the poet were aiming in all this nicety at a sen- suous, as much as at an intellectual effect upon the reader, however logically important a particular succession of words may have been in other passages of their writings. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Corps, foh, Living Body. Southey, who was very well read in Early English literature, appears to have overlooked the fact that corps was, not unfrequently, used for body of a living person in the seventeenth cen- tury. In a note on p. 407 of the Chro- nicle of the Old, upon the word " car- rion," he says : " In the translation of Richeome's Pilgrim of Loretto by G. W., printed at Paris, 1630 : a similar word is employed, but not designedly, . . . the translator, living in a foreign country, and speaking a foreign language, had forgotten the nicer distinctions of his own. ' Women and maids,' he says, ' shall particularly examine themselves about the vanity of their apparell, ... of their too much care of their corps, " &c. Spenser uses this word for living body : — " A comely corpse with beautie faire endowed." Symne in Sonour of Beautie, 135. Fuller, in Andronicus, or, the Unfor- tunate Politician, iii. 18, uses corps, a dead body, as a plural : " As for the corps of Alexius . . . they were most unworthily handled," &c. And again, in his Church History of England, book x. sec. i. § 12, speaking of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, he says, " Her corps were solemnly interred under a fair tomb," &c. But at the conclusion of book xi. §§ 42, 45, 48, 49, and 50, he employs corpse in the singular, ac- cording to the present orthography and syntax. Are we to charge the printers with the error, or to credit them with the correction ? (. z»* ) LECTURE XVII. GRAMMATICAL INFLEXIONS. § 1. The Romance languages. § 2. Whether derived from ancient dialects. § 3. Return to radical forms in derivative languages. § 4. History of in- flexions. § 5. Effects of conquest in corrupting a language. § 6. Other causes of linguistic corruption. § 7. Influence of poetry upon inflexions. § 8. Influence of inflexions upon the accentuation. III. § 1. It is a remarkable fact that trie modern languages 'known in literature are, perhaps without exception, poorer in grammatical in- flexions than the ancient tongues from which they are respectively derived; and that, consequently, the syntactical relations of im- portant words are made to depend much more on auxiliaries, deter- minative particles and position. In fact, the change in this respect is so great as to have given a new linguistic character to the tongues which now constitute the speech of civilized man. I alluded on a former occasion to a doctrine advanced by very eminent philologists, that grammatical structure is a surer test of linguistic affinity than comparison of vocabularies. But though this doctrine, as limited and understood by the ablest linguists, is true in its application to the primary distinctions between great classes of languages, as, for example, the Semitic and Indo-European ; yet it properly relates to remote and generic, not specific affinities, and is not capable of such extension as to be of much practical value in comparing the mixed and derivative languages of Europe with those from which they are immediately descended. We know, with historical certainty, that what are called the Romance languages, and their many local dialects, are derived from the Latin; but what coincidence of syntactical structure do we find between them and the common mother of them all? The Italian resembles the Latin in independence of fixed laws of periodic arrangement, but here the grammatical likeness ends, and, if we apply that test alone, it would be quite as easy to make out a lin- guistic affinity between the Italian and the Greek, as between the Italian and the Latin. The Latin has no article, definite or inde- finite ; its noun, adjective, pronoun and participle, have not only the distinction of Dumber, but of three genders also, and a full system of Lect. XVII. DERIVATION OF KOMANCE LANGUAGES. 255 inflected cases ; its adjectives admit of degrees of comparison ; and its verbs have a passive voice. The Italian, on the contrary, has two articles ; its nouns, adjectives, pronouns and participles, though varied for number, have no distinction of case ; its adjectives are compared only by the aid of particles ; it has no neuter gender, and its verbs are without a passive voice. All this is true, also, of the Spanish, French and Portuguese. These diversities of grammar would have been held to disprove a linguistic relationship between the Latin and its descendants, were not such relationship established both by identity of vocabulary and by positive historical evidence. So, with respect to the Greek, we know that more closely literal, more exactly word-for-word translations (and this is certainly one of the best tests of grammatical resemblance), can be made from it into German, than into any of the languages of Southern Europe, which, through the Latin, are more nearly related to it. Another fact bearing on this same question is, that the points of syntactical struc- ture or general grammar, in which the modern languages of Southern and South-eastern Europe approach each other most closely, are just those in which they least resemble the Latin and the ancient Greek, from which they are respectively derived ; and therefore, in spite of their diversity of origin, and their discrepancies of vocabulary and syntax, they must have been influenced by powerful common tendencies. § 2. The general resemblance between the languages of modem Europe, in points where they differ from the grammar of Greek and Latin as exhibited in classical literature, is not a matter of obvious explanation. It has been maintained that the popular colloquial speech of ancient Greece and Eome, and especially the vulgar and rural dialects of both, differed widely from the written languages, and nearly approximated to the modern spoken tongues which represent them. The supposed resemblance between ancient colloquial Greek and modern Romaic, between ancient colloquial Latin, or -the rustic dialects, and modern Italian, is'an extremely interesting and curious subject, and it has been at least made out that many forms in the two modern dialects, hitherto supposed to be recent corruptions, are really of a very early date ; but to assume that those dialects are merely the popular speech of Athens and of Eome, would be to claim for them an immutability, a persistence of character, which is at variance with what observation teaches us is the inevitable law of all language, and, moreover, with what historical evidence proves as to successive changes in the very tongues in question. Modern Italian has divided itself into at least a score of clearly marked distinct dia-! Iects, and but few of the characteristic peculiarities of these can be traced to any ancient source. The differences between them, in point sf vocabulary, seem to depend very much on the special extraneous 256 RETURN TO RADICAL FORMS. Lect. XVII. influences to which the localities where they are spoken have been exposed ; but with regard to their very wide divers'ties in inflexion, in syntax, and in pronunciation, although the same influences have doubtless been active in producing them, yet it is very difficult to trace the relation between the cause and the effect. Disregarding relatively unimportant exceptions, the most general classification we can make of these dialects is into those with full, and those with ineaenkestow, misdostow, for thinkest thou, misdoest thou ; ' Dame Siriz,' troustu, for trowest thou ; the ' Seven Sages;' woltu, for thou wilt ; the ancient Interlocutory Poem above referred to, a like form, with, the pronoun, thu canstu ; and ' Piers Ploughman,' among numerous other cases, the negative inflexion, why nadistou, why hadst-thou-not.* * Similar combinations are found in German, even as late as the time of Luther. Thus, in Warnunge D. M. Luther an. seine lieben DeudscAen, Wittenberg, 1531, wiltu occurs at F. III., and mustu at F. b. In the much older Orendel und Bride, Zurich, 1858, we find instances of the coalescence of all the three persons with the verb: woldich, p. 17; mahtu, 6; vasthi, woldhi, 1 ; kondhi, 9. In the famous Abrenuntio Diaboli, of the eighth century, Wright {Biog. Briton. Lit. i. 310) prints forsachistu, gelobistu, but other critics separate the pronoun from the verb. There are many instances of like combinations in Old Icelandic, and among others may be mentioned the con- struction of a negative form of the verb by affixing the particle, a, at, ap, 272 CORRUPTION OF " HAVE" INTO « A." IeCT. XVttl. § 7. In the carelessness of pronunciation which usually marks hasty and familiar speaking, the auxiliary have is indistinctly articulated. " I should have gone," is pronounced almost, " I should a gone," and by persons ignorant of reading and writing, altogether so. In Old English books, many instances occur where the compound tense is thus printed, as, for example, in Lord Berners' ' Froissart,' vol. i. chap. 225, " a man coude not cast an appell among the, but it shuld a fallen on a bassenet or a helme;" in Wycliffe's ' Apology for the Lollards,' page 1, "I knowlech to afelid and seid pus ;" in the ' Paston Letters,' i. 22, " brybe's that wold a rolled a ship ; " ' Paston Letters,' i. 6, " a gret nowmbre come to Arfleet for to ares- cuyd it ; " — in which last example the coalescence is complete.* § 8. A like tendency is discoverable in other classes of words, such as the formation of an objective of the definite article the by a coalescence with the prepositions in, on, and at ; ythe, ith being often written for in the, oth- for on the, atte for at the. There are also traces of a new form in the nouns. In Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish, the nouns have a definite declension formed by affixing the termination of the definite article according to case and gender. Thus, in Swedish, k o n u n g means king, konungen, the king, k o n u n - g e n s , the king's ; h u s means house, h u s e t , the house, f A some- what similar contraction existed in Early English, in the case of nouns beginning with a vowel. The empress was written and spoken as one word, thempress ; the evangel or gospel, thevangel ; the apostle, thapostle ; the ancre (anchor), thancre. There are even faint and doubtful indications of a like inclination with regard to the article an, and the creation of an indefinite form of the noun by employing this article as a prefix : thus we find a nedgetoole for an edge-tool, a or a 8 ; also of .negative forms of the noun, adjective, pronoun, and adverb, by affixing the syllables gi or ki . * These forms occur even in the Life of Richard III., ascribed to More, as printed in Hardyng, p. 547, reprint of 1812 : "Richard might (as the fame went) asaued hymself if he would afled awaie." But this passage is not in Rastell's edition of 1557, and More could hardly have adopted this collo- quialism. t The definite article is den for the masculine and feminine, det for the neuter. In the process of coalescence, the initial consonant d is dropped, and konung den becomes konungen, hus det^huset. This, at least, is the present grammatical resolution of the compound. Historically, however, kon - ungen is the Icelandic koniingrinn.a definite formed by the coalescence of the noun kouvlngr, and the definite pronominal article hinn (for which latter word the modern Swedish substitutes den), and so of other nouns which have been traditionally handed down from the Old-Northern period. In the definite form of new words, the analogy of the primitive language has been followed, and the article retains the d only when it stands alone. Leot. XVIII. COALESCENCE OF OTHER WORDS. 273 nounpire * for an umpire, but these seem to be rather cases of ortho- graphical confusion than really new combinations. The effect of reducing a language to writing is to put a stop to the formation of inflexions. Inflexions doubtless often grow out of a hurried and indistinct pronunciation of familiar and frequently recurring combinations ; but, when the words are written, the mind is constantly brought back to the radical forms, and the tendency to coalescence thus arrested ; and indeed the effect of writing does not stop here, but it leads to the resolution of compounds, not much altered in form, into their primitive elements. In listening to the conversation of uneducated persons, and even to the familiar colloquial speech of the better instructed, we observe a strong inclination to the coalescence of words. Let a foreigner, who should be wholly ignorant of the grammatical structure of the European languages, but able to write down articulations, record the words of our ordinary conversation as he would hear them spoken. The result would be an approximation to an inflected language. He would agglutinate in writing the words which we agglutinate in speaking, and thus, in many cases, form a regular conjugation. Take, for example, the interrogative use of the verb to have; have I? have you? has he? The stranger would not suspect that each of these phrases was composed of two words, but would treat them as the first, second, and third persons of an inter- rogative form of the verb to have. His spelling would conform to the pronunciation, and he would write havvi, havye, hazzy. Now those who first reduce a language to writing are much in the con- dition I have just supposed. They record what they hear ; and had English long remained unwritten, the coalescences would have become established, and conjugations and declensions formed ac- cordingly. The interrogative would have had its regular verbal inflexion, and a past infinitive, agone, a/alien, would have grown out of the combination of the participle with the auxiliary, the latter becoming a syllabic augment.^ This is precisely analogous to what actually did take place in most of the Eomance dialects, because they were used colloquially for centuries before they were written, the Latin being the language of the government, of law, of literature, and of religion. * The n in nounpire may be radical, for it has been ingeniously suggested that this obscure word is perhaps non pair, odd one, a third person called in to turn the scale between two disagreeing arbitrators. f In French, it was only the early reduction of the spoken tongue to writing which prevented the development of a regular negative verb, and the definite noun. N'avoir would have become permanently n avoir, and l'homme, 1 o m me , in writing as well as in sceech, had French remained merely an oral dialect a few centuries longer. ENU. LAN. T 274 NEW GRAMMATICAL FORMS. LeOT. XVIII. § 9. The two great elements of which English ia composed had each its written dialect, and it would therefore have been quite natural that the new language should very early have become a written speech, if there had been an actual historical hiatus between Ano stllle." And again : " be ich be kyng of Breteyne, bat was bin vncle lend." The first verse of Robert de Brunne's version of Langtoft Tuns thus : — " In Saint Beds holies writen er stories olde." And on page 13 : " In Cllmrlemagn courts, sire of Saint Dlnys." In the older Wycliffite version of Genesis xxix. 10, we find : " Whom whanne Jacob hadde seen, and wiste hir his unkil dowghter ; " and xxx. 36 : " and pnttc Lect XVIII. THE FORM " ITS." 219 earlier date, is not once used ia that edition, his being in all cases but that just cited employed instead. The precise date and occasion of the first introduction of its is not ascertained, but it could not have been far from the year 1600.* I believe the earliest instances of the use of the neuter possessive yet observed are in Shakespeare, and other dramatists of that age. Most English writers continued for some time longer to employ his indisoilminately with reference to male persons or creatures, and to inanimate impersonal things. For a considerable period about the beginning of the seventeenth century, there was evidently a sense of incongruity in the application of his to objects incapable of the distinction of sex, and, at the same time, a reluctance to sanction the introduction of the new form its as a substitute. Accordingly, for the first half of that century, many of the best writers reject them both, and I think English folios can be found which do not contain a single example of either. Of it, thereof, and longer circumlocutions were preferred, or the very idea of the possessive relation was avoided altogether. Although Sir Thomas Browne, writing about 1660, sometimes has Us 'five or six times on one page, yet few authors of an earlier date freely use this possessive, and I do not remember meeting it very frequently in any writer older than T. Heywood. Ben Jonson indeed employs its in his Works, but does not recognize it in his Grammar. It occurs rarely in Milton's prose, and not above three or four times in his poetry. Walton commonly employs his instead. Fuller has its in some of his works, in others he rejects it, and in ,the ' Pisgah Sight of Palestine,' printed in 1650, bothforms are sometimes applied to a neuter noun in the course of a single sentence.t Sir Thomas a space of thre dales weye betwix hem and his dowghtir husboond." These latter cases might, it is true, be considered compounds, like the Danish Farbror, Morbror (Fader-Broder, Moder-Broder) , but this explanation will not apply to the earlier examples I have given, or to numerous instances of a later date. Thus in the Pastm Letters, i. 6 : " for his sou'eyn lady sake ; " i. 118, " on Seint Simon day and Jude ;" i. 122: " such as most have intrest m the Lord Wyllughby Goodes ; " ii. 298 : " my brother Soaf asent." * In the Fardle of Facions, 1555, p. 321, reprint of 1812, we have: "a certaine sede which groweth there of the owne accorde ;" and in Holland's Pliny, i. 24, " hauing fire of the owne before." These forms are by no means uncommon. t " Many miles hence, this river solitarily runs on as sensible of its sad fate suddenly to fall into the Dead Sea, at Ashdoth-Pisgah, where all his comfort is to have the company of two other brooks " (book ii. 58). "Whether from the violence of winds then blowing on its stream, and angring it beyond Ms banks " (book ii. 59). [In the following examples also, quoted by Dr. Guest, his represents the genitive of it: — " This Apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy — I have read the cause of his effects in Galen ; it is a kind. of deafness." — 2 Pt. Sen. IV. i, 2. "If 280 USE OF "HIS." Lect. XVIH. Browne, on the other hand, rarely, if ever, employs his as a neuter, and I think that after the Restoration in 1660, scarcely any instances occur of the use of the old possessive for the newly-formed inflexion, It is somewhat singular that the neuter possessive did not appear till long after the grammatical change with respect to gender had taken place in literature, but the explanation is to he found partly in a repugnance to the introduction of new inflexions, and partly in the fact that the old application of genders was kept up in the spoken language long after it had become extinct in the written. Indeed, they are still applied to inanimate objects, in the same confused way, in some English provincial dialects ; and, even apart from the poetical vocabulary, traces of the same practice exist among us to this day. The indiscriminate attribution of the three genders, as in Anglo-Saxon and German, or of the masculine and feminine, as in French and Italian, to inanimate objects, is philosophically a blemish, and practically a serious inconvenience, in those languages, and it is a great improvement in English that it has simplified its grammar, by rejecting so superfluous, unmeaning, and embarrassing a subtlety. § 12. A singular obsolete corruption in the syntax of our mother- tongue was revived not far from the period of the introduction of its, and it has been usually ascribed to a passion for generalizing the laws of language before its facts were well ascertained. Two centuries since it was common to write John his stick, Maury her hook, and the like. Ben Jonson says, that " nouns in z, s, sh, g, and ch, make, in the possessive singular, is, in the plural, es;" "which distinction," continues he, " not observed, brought in the monstrous syntax of the pronoun his joining with a noun betokening a possessor, as, the prince his house."* The practice appears to have been founded on the " If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned ? It is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out." — Jjuke xiv. 35. " Some affirm that every plant has his particular fly or caterpillar, which it breeds and feeds." — Walton's Angler, i. 5. " This rule is not so general, but that it admitteth his exceptions." — Carea. ' Transactions of Philological Society,' vol. i. p. 280. — Ed.] * Harvey, in 1580, in his reply to Immerito (Spenser), speaking of English orthography, says : — " But see what absurdities thys yl fauoured Orthographye, or rather Pseudography, hath mgendered ; and howe one errour still breedeth and begetteth an other. Have wee not Mooneth, for Moonthe ; sithence, for since ; whilest, for whilste ; phantasie, for phansie ; euen for evn ; diuel, for divl ; Qod hys wrathe, for Goddes wrath ; and a thousande of the same stampe, wherein the corrupte Orthography in the moste hath beene the sole, or princi- pall cause of corrupte Prosodye in ouer many." Mulcaster, in 1582, remarks on this form : " Neither do I se anie cause wher to use his, saving after words which end in s, as ' Socrates his councell was this. Platoes that, and Aristotle* this.'' " I.EOT. XVIII. ANALOGOUS FORMS OF "HIS." 281 grammatical theory that s, as a sign of the possessive case, was a contraction of the possessive pronoun his. But it is argued that those who introduced the innovation did not remember that s was the sign of the possessive in feminine as well as in masculine nouns, and in the plural number of the strong inflexion also, in neither of which cases could it have been originally a contraction of his. They should have further considered, it is added, that, upon this theory, the s final of the possessive pronouns hers and theirs must in like manner have been derived from his, which is a, manifest absurdity, and that the s in his itself, which is evidently an inflected form of the nominative masculine personal pronoun he, could not be thus explained. As I have just remarked, his is the Anglo-Saxon possessive form of the pronoun for both the masculine and neuter genders, the feminine having anciently had the form hire, nearly corresponding to the modern her. It should be added that the s final is the earliest known sign of the possessive or genitive case in most of the languages of the Indo-European stock, and it may fairly be insisted, that, for the present, this is to be received as an ultimate grammatical fact, not at this time admitting of etymological explanation.* § 13. There is a strikingly analogous fact in the modem history of the Gothic languages, which cannot be passed over. I refer to the nearly contemporaneous introduction of a precisely similar syntactical form in the Swedish, Danish and German, all of which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries veiy frequently employed the possessive pronoun, in the masculine and feminine genders, and both numbers, as the sign of the genitive case of the noun. In these dialects, there is the same discrepancy between the primitive form and the modern substitute, and even a greater difficulty in supposing the usual genitive sign to be derived from the possessive pronoun. This use of the pronoun is generally if not always confined to proper names, whereas in English it was applied also to common nouns, and in the former case it seems to have originated in the difficulty of declining foreign names with the native inflexion. A similar device was sometimes resorted to in the Latin of that day, in the syntax of modern proper names, and I think it probable that the Gothic languages borrowed it from this corrupt Latin form, for there is little reason to suppose that they could all have taken it from the syntax of the one among them which first introduced it. If, however, further investigation shall show that it spontaneously originated in any two or more of them, the fact becomes very im- portant, and it would be fair to regard it as an expression of the linguistic sense of the Gothic race entitled to no little weight as an * See Notes and Illustrations (D), On the Origin of ' s' as the sign of tha Possessive Case in English. 282 ANOMALOUS CONSTRUCTIONS. Lect. XVIII. evidence that, in spite of the difficulty of reconciling the forms, the real origin of the Gothic genitive or possessive inflexion is to be found in a coalescence of the noun and the possessive pronoun.* § 14. The rejection of inflexions, and especially the want of a passive voice, have compelled the use of some very complex and awkward expressions. The phrases I am told, he had been, gone half an hour, strike foreigners as particularly monstrous. Such combina- tions as " he was given a commission in a new regiment " are employed by some of the best writers of the present day, as well as by those of an earlier period.f I find, in a late discourse by an eminent divine, a recommendation to literary men to acquire some manual occupation "which may be-fallen-back-upon in case of need;" and Coleridge speaks of an impediment to " men's turning their minds inwards upon themselves." " Such a thing has been-gone-through-with," " it ought to-be-taJcen-notice-qf," " it ought not to-be-lost-sight-qf," are really compound, or rather agglutinate passives, and the number of such will probably rather increase than diminish. They make the language not less intelligible, but less artistic ; less poetical, but not less practical, and they are therefore fully in accordance with those undefined tendencies which constitute the present drift of the English language. * The grammar of the Mceso-Gothic presents a case of resemblance between the genitive of the personal pronouns, which serves as a possessive, and the geni- tive or possessive case of certain nouns and adjectives. The genitive singular of the personal pronoun is masc. is, fern, izos, neut. is. The genitive singular of a numerous class of masculine nouns ends in is; as nam. wigs, gen. wigis. The same case of many feminines ends in jos or os ; as nam. piudangardi, gen. biudangardjos. Thus far, there is a certain likeness between the possessive of the pronoun and the possessive ending of the noun, but the coinci- dences are too few to authorize the supposition that the ending in question was formed by a coalescence of the noun and pronoun, for in most Mceso-Gothic nouns, the possessive form admits of no such explanation. Between the genitive of the adjective and the pronoun, the resemblance is much stronger. Take the indefinite form of the adjective gods, good. Masc. Fern. Neut. Nom. gods, goda, god, godata. Gen. gouis godaizos, godls. So superlative batists, best. Nom. batists, batists, batist. Gen. batlstis, batistalzos, batlstls. t Lord Berners, in his translation of Froissart, vol. i. chap. 39, says : " I was shewed the gleave." Gibbon, vol. i. chap. 7, observes of Maximin, " he had been denied admittance." Lect. XVIII. ( 283 ) NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. Anglo-Saxon Inflexions. The following account of the Anglo-Saxon inflexions, which is taken from Rask's Anglo-Saxon Grammar, and the abridgment in Vernon's Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue y will make the statements in the preceding lecture more intelligible. Alphabet. The Alphabet is the same as the modern English, with the exception of the letters \> and $, both of which answer to the English ih, the p having a hard sound, as in thing, and 35 a soft sound, as in this, thou, other. Declension of Nouns. Nouns are divided into two Orders, the Weak and the Strong; the former having one Declension of three Classes for the three Genders, the latter two Declensions of three Classes each. The "Weak Order contains those ending in an essential vowel ; viz., -e in the neuter, -a in the masculine, and -e in the feminine. The Strong Order com- prises all ending in a consonant, together with some in an unessential -e or -». Table of Inflexion of Nouns. Weak Order. J. Declension* I. Neut. II. Mare. % III. Fem. Singular* Nom, -e -a -e Ace. -e -an -an Abl. & Dat. -an -an -an Gen. -an -an -an Plural. Nom. & Ace. -an Abl. & Dat. -um Gen. -e n a Strong Order. II. Declension. III. Declension. i.Neiu. II.Masc. III. Fem' 1. Neut. II. Maec. III. Fem. Singular. Singular. Nom, i — — (-e) - -(-e) -u -u Ace. — - (-e) -e -(-e) -u -e Abl. & D. -e -e -e -e -a -e Gen. -es -es -e Plural. -es -a -e Plural. N. &A. — -as -a -u -a -a Abl. & D. -um -u m -urn -um •um -u m Gen. -a -a -a (-ena) -a -a -a (-ena 284 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lect. XVI11. Wbak Nouns. J. Declension. Examples — efigeeye, steorra etar t tunge tongue. Class I. Class II. Class III. Singular. Neuter. Nora. eag-e Ace. e ft g - e Abl. & Dat. e a g - a n Gen. efig-an Manculino, steorr-a steorr-an steorr-an steorr-an Plural. N. & Ace. cap- an steorr-an Abl. & Dat. eag-um steorr-um Gen. e&g-ena 6 t corr-c n it Feminine. tung-e tung-an tung-an tung-an tung-an t u n g - u in tung-ena Strong Nouns. II. Declension. Examples — word word, dttjl part t deal, ende end, spr&c speech. Class I. Class II. Class III. Neuter. Nom. word Aco. "word Abl. & Dat. word-e Mojculino. d&l end-e difil end-o tl if i l-o end-e Feminine. spr&c s prfiGc-o sprgGc-e Gen. word-e s difcl-es end-es spr£eo-c Plural. ' N. & A. word dt61-as end-as spr&c-a Abl. & Dat. word-um dtfil-um end-am Bprt6c-um Gen. word- diOl-a ond-a spra5c-a (-ena.) III. Declension. Examples — t r e 6 w tree, sunu eon, d e n u vale. ClasB I. Class II. Xing alar. Class IIL Neuter Masculine. Feminine. Nom. tree >e >tn Dual. Plural Dual. Plural. N. A. Abl. G. ■wit unc & D. unc uncei ■we lis us tire git ine inc incer ge e6w e6w e6wer Ncut. N. hit A. hit Singular. Mow. he hino Fem. *he6 hi AM. & D. G. him his hire hire N. Abl G. &A. . &D. hi him hira 7J. Possessive Pronouns* The Possessive Pronouns are formed from the genitives of the two first persons ; as, mln mine, my ; bin thine, thy ; uncer, fire our ; incer, edwer your : like other Pronouns in general, they are declined as indefinite adjectives. Those in - e r are usually contracted ; as u n c r e , e 6 w r e s , and the like. III. Demonstrative Pronouns. The Demonstrative Pronouns are baet, se, se6 that, which is likewise the relative which, who, that, and the article the ; and bis, |>es, be 6s thit^ Lbct. XVm. ANGLO-SAXON INFLEXIONS. 287 Neut. Muc. Pem. beet se se6 peet pone ba Abl. ) \>f b? D. \> a ni pseie G. j (>!E3 paSre N. & A. ba A. &D. bi'Lin G. para bes b pisne p Fein. e6s as lsum issa IV. Interrogative Pronouns. The Interrogative Pronouns are hw se t, hwa? u>Aa£? wAo? hwyle? wAfcA h w » € e r whether .' wAtcA / The first has no plural, and is thus declined : — Neuter. Maw:. & Fem. Nom, h w te t h w S, Ace. hwset hwone (hwsene) Abl. hw£ Dat. hwa.ni (hw£6m) Gen. hwees Declension of Numerals. A'n one follows Indef. Bed. and, used definitely, becomes £ne, dna, fine, T w a two, and p r e o three, are thus declined ; — Neut. Masc. Fem. Neut. Masc. Fem. N. &A. twa (tfi) twegen twd J>reo J?ry Jtreo Abl. & D. twam (tw£§m) brym G. twegra (twega) preora. Conjugation of Verbs. There are two Orders of Verbs, as of Nouns ; viz., the Weak and the Strong. The Weak Order forms its imperfect by adding -ode (-ede), -de, or -fe, to the root; the participle past by adding -od (-ed), -d, or -t. In the Strong Order the imperfect changes its vowel ; the participle past ends in -en. Weak Yerbs. Table of Terminations. l. s. s. 1. 2. 3. I,i(l. Pro. S. -e -St -« Subj. -e PI. -a* -a* -a* -on Imp. S. -de -dest -de -de PI. -don -don -don -don. Imperat. S. — PI. -*; Inf. -an. Gerund, -enne, -annej Part. Pr., -ende; Part.past, -cl (,-ed),-d, or • 288 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Leot. XVIM. Examples, Class I. Class II. Class III. Present. ic luf-i I love ge Imperfect. luf-ode lov-ed Part. part. (ge-)luf-od. lov-ed hyr-e hear hyr-de hear-d (ge-Jhyr-ed hear-d tell-e tell teale-de tol-d (g e -) t e a 1 - d told Indicative Mode. Present. Sing. io luf-ige hyr-e tell-e p& luf-ast hyr-st tel-st he luf-aS hyr-S tel-8 Plur. we, e, hi luf-iaS hyr-aS tell-a8 luf-ige hyr-o tell-e Imperfect Sing. ic luf-ode -hyr-de teal-de pa luf-odest hyr-dest teal-dent lie luf-ode hyr-de teal-de PI. we, ge, hi luf-odon hyr-don teal-don SUBJUNCTIVE MODE. Present. Sing, luf-ige hyr-e tell-e Plur. luf-ion hyr-on tell-on Imperfect. Sing, luf-ode hyr-de teal-de Plur. luf-odon hyr-don teal-don Imperative Mode. Sing, luf-a hyr tel-e Plur.|; u f-! aS U? r " aS Jtell-aS (luf-ige } hyr-e \ tell-e Ijtwnitive Mode. Pres. luf-ian bfr-an tell-an Gerund. t<5 luf-igenne — hyr-enne — tell-anno Part. pres. luf-igende hyr-ende tcll-ende Part, past (ge-)luf-od (ge-) hyr-ed (ge-) teal-d. Strong Verbs. Table of Terminations. «• 8. i. s. a. Ind. Free. S. -e -l_ PI. -a* -aS -aS Imp. S. — -e -e -on. Subj. -e ; -on PI. -on -on -on Imperat. S. — PI. - aS ; Inf. - an Gerund, -enne, -anne ; Part. Pr. -ende ; Part. Past. -en. Lect. XVIII. ANGLO-SAXON INFLEXIONS. 289 Examples* pr«K ■at. Imperfect. Part. puct. brec- ■ e brseo (ge -)bro c-en break brake brok-en heald-e hedld (ge -)h e a 1 d - e n hold held hold-en drag -e drdh (ge -)dragen draw drew draio-n bind- -e band (ge -)b u n d - e n bind bound bound-en drif- e draf (ge -)drif-en drive drove driv-en olfif. e cleaf (ge -)olof-en cleave clave Indicative Mode. Present. clov-en Sing. 1. brece healde drage 2. bricst hyltst dreegst 3. bric$ bylt(healt) dr ee g5 Plur. I) r e c a S . WEBB Plur. synd (s y n d o n) Plur. ■w^ron ENG. LAN. V 290 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Lkct. XVIII. Pres. sj', (sfg, s Plur. B y n Imper. p.u r .{; SuMVNCTIVK. 0er he was y slawe, aftur Haym ys name y wys, Hamptone was y clepud, as he yet y clepud ys." 204 NOTES 'AND ILLUSTRATIONS. LiiCT. XVltl. The pronoun hys is printed in this edi- tion, indifferently, his, hys, and ys, and therefore in the example I have cited, ys may possibly be a pronoun, but the mere separation of this syllable from the root in the manuscript does not prove it to be so, for the participial and preterite augment y, as in y slawe, y elepud in the above couplet, the prefix hi, as in hi het, hi leue, hi com, hi gan, the prefix a (Latin ad), as in a cent for assent, and in a passage from a different manuscript, p. 611, the "plural sign is in peny is, are separated from the root. Mr. Marsh adds in his Appendix : Besides the example quoted from Robert of Gloucester, I find in that writer two other instances of the separation of the syllable ys from the root in the posses- sive case : — " The kyng tok Brut ys owne body, in ostage as it were." — P. 13. And after : " Brut ys owne nome he clepede it Bretagne." — P. 22. •In Gower, Con/. Am., Pauli, iii. 356, is a passage where his may be a posses- sive sign :— " To holde love his covenaunt ;" but it is possible that love may here be used as a dative, — to hold to love his covenant, his requirement or stipula- tion. There are many similar cases in the continuation of Robert of Gloucester printed in the appendix to Hearne's edi- tion, and written apparently about the middle of the fifteenth century. Thus ; "Sir John is tyme," p. 589; " In the V. Kyng Senry is tyme," p. 593 ; "through God is grace," p. 595 ; and the use of the pronoun his as a pos- sessive sign is frequent in Hardyng, who is supposed to have finished Ms Chronicle about 1465, though he most usually employs the regular possessive in s. Thus, reprint of 1812, p. 156 : " In the year of Christ his incarnacion." Page 226 : "and putte hym whole in God his high mercye." And in the continuation of 1543, p. 436, "Kynge Senry the VI. hys wife." No example of this construction has been observed in Piers Ploughman, Gower, Chaucer, or the "Wycliffite ver- sions, but three apparent instances occur in Torrente of Portugal, at verses 380, 1384, and 1902 : "the devylle ys hed," " but it be for Jhesu is sake," and " ffor Jeshu is love." These, however, are in- conclusive, for the same reason as those cited from Robert of Gloucester. The ending in ys is often found about this period, in pronouns where it could not have been derived from his or hys, as in one of the Paston Letters (vol. i. 46), written in 1470, in which hers is spelt hyrrys, and ours, howrys, and the plural of nouns very often takes this ending. The form " my Lord Bedford ys godes," in the Paston Letters, i. 122, "to my Maistr ys place," i. 198, are probably mere orthographical errors, as they are contrary to the almost uniform usage in that collection. In the Morte d? Arthur, first printed in 1485, tenth book, chapter thirty-fifth, I find this passage: "Beware, Kynge Marke, and come not nyghe me, for wete thou well that I saued Alysander his lyf;" and there is a more equivocal instance in the seventh chapter of the fourth book : "This lord of this castel his name is Sir Damas." In general, the possessive is formed in this work as in modern times, but always without the apostrophe. The earliest examples I have met with of the free and constant use of his as a possessive sign are in. the continuation of Fabyan's Chronicle, commencing with the reign of Henry VIII. and printed in 1542, pp. 696, 699, 701, 702, and else- where, of Ellis's reprint, but it is re- markable that in the previous parts of that Chronicle this construction does not occur. In the ' Confutacyon of Tyndale's Aun- swere, made anno 1532, by Syr Thomas More,' p. 343 of the edition of 1557, I find this passage : " him have they sette on saynt Mathie hys even by the name of Saynt Thomas the Martyr ; " and on p. 597, "for conclusion of David hys dedes." It is possible that the form of the possessive may, in these instances, have been changed by the editor, so as to accord with the new usage, but, if genuine, they date further back than the examples from Fabyan's Chronicle. An instance of the use of the plural possessive pronoun as the sign of the possessive case of the noun occurs in a letter written in 1528, and printed at page 44 of the Introduction to Bagster's English Hcxapla: "I did promys him X 1. sterling to praie for my father & mother there 60wles, and al criaten Lkct. XVIII. ORIGIN OF S AS SIGN OF POSSESSIVE CASE. 295 Bowles." This example, indeed, proves nothing directly with regard to the ori- gin of the possessive sign s, hut this instance and those cited from Layamon, the Morte d? Arthur, Fabyan, and More, show that the possessive pronoun was, to some extent, regarded as the gram- matical equivalent of the possessive sign, hefore the date of the English Liturgy. Doubtless the number of such ex- amples might be increased by further research, but they are too few and too much at variance with the almost uni- versal usage of the language before the sixteenth century, and its known histo- rical etymology, to serve as a foundation for a grammatical theory. If they are anything more than accidental depar- tures from the regular form, they, at most, only prove that particular English writers confounded the possessive -pro- noun with the possessive sign. Even this conclusion is rendered less probable by the fact that no instance of the cor responding use of her, or, with the single exception which I have cited from the letter of 1528, of their, is known to occur until about 1560. Palsgrave ex- pressly says that the possessive is formed by adding s (or is) to the noun ; and he does not himself in any case employ the pronoun for this purpose, nor does Gil. in his Logonomia, notice any but the in- flected possessive. The apostrophe before the s is Robert of Gloucester was pro- bably introduced to make the distinction between the possessive singular and the plural number, a device which, when the new plural form in s was hardly yet colloquially established, might be a con- venience, if not a necessity. Upon the whole, then, I think we aie authorised to say that the theory which makes the possessive sign s a derivative or contraction of the possessive pronoun his, in English etymology, is without historical evidence or probable analogy to support it. [There can be little doubt that s as the sign of the possessive is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon termination es of the genitive case ; but the other syntax ap- pears to have arisen at a very early period. Dr. Guest observes that " in the MS. of Robert of Gloucester we have both forms Hengestes and JECengest ys, and in some other MSS. of the fourteenth century, the latter of these forms seems to be used exclusively, as if the writer consi- dered it to be the real representative of the genitive." He adds : " It may be well to notice, that the form which we are now discussing was just as common in the Dutch as in our own language. It survived indeed to so late a period, that modern Dutch grammarians sometimes think it necessary to warn the reader against such phrases as ' mijne moeder hare zuster,' my mother her sister ; * mijn vader zijn broeder,' my father his brother, &c." — Transactions of Philo- logical Society, vol. i. p. 224. There are some valuable remarks upon this subject in a paper by the late Arch- , deacon Hare in the Philological Museum, vol. i. p. 669 seq. — Ed.] ( 296 ) LECTURE XIX. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS AFFECTED BY THE AOT OF PRINTING. § 1. Forms of books: origin of Latin and English words for "book." § 2. Difference between ancient and modern books. § 3. Mode of reading among the ancients. § 4. Marks of punctuation. § 5. Influence of the art of printing upon writing : mechanical conditions. § 6. Alteration of spelling by the printers. § 7. Licenses of ancient copyists. § 1. The material conditions to which the art of book-making, in all its branches, is subject, have not only been powerfully instrumental in the modification of single words, and in determining those .minor questions upon which the ready and commodious use of a written or printed volume depends, but they have exerted an important in- fluence upon the more general forms of literature, and even upon the character and tendency of mental action. Let me illustrate by a comparison between the ancient and modern methods of recording the processes and results of human thought. The oldest manuscripts have scarcely a single point of resemblance to modern books. The Latin word volumen (whence our volume), derived from the verb v o 1 v o I turn or roll, indicates the most usual form of the ancient book. It was a long, narrow roll of parchment or papyrus generally divided transversely into pages or columns, the words written closely together without any separation by spaces, without distinctive forms of letters, capitals being employed for all purposes alike, without marks of punctuation, without divisions of chapters, paragraphs or periods, and frequently made still more illegible by complicated and obscure abbreviations or contractions of whole syllables, or even words, into a single character. The modern book is an assemblage of leaves, of convenient form and dimensions, securely united at one edge, with pages regularly numbered, impressed with characters of different, but fixed forms, according to their several uses, words separated by spaces, members of the periods, and the periods themselves, distinguished by appropriate points, and the whole cut up into paragraphs, sections and chapters, according to the natural divisions of the subject, or the convenience of the writer, printer or reader, and, finally, abundantly provided with explanatory notes and references, and ample tables oi contents and indexes. Lect. XIX. BOOKS— ANCIENT AND MODERN. 297 It may not be here irrelevant to make a remark or two on the etymology of the Latin and English words for book. Volumen , derived as I have just said from v o 1 v o , is a younger and less com- mon Latin name for book than either liber, the generic term for all books, or codex, properly the specific designation of manu- scripts composed of leaves of any material, while volumen was the proper appellation of the roll. The word liber (whence our library), originally signifying the inner bark of trees, was applied to books, because bark was one of the earliest materials on which the Latin people wrote. Code x, or caudex, whence our code, signi- fies the trunk or stem of a tree.' Thin tablets of wood, split from the stem and covered with a layer of wax, at a very early period sup- - plied the place of the more modern papyrus, parchment and paper, the writing being inscribed upon the wax with a hard point or stile. The Gothic tribes also used slips of wood for the same purpose, and the wood of the beech being found best adapted for writing-tablets, its primitive name (in Anglo-Saxon, b o c ) became the designation of the most important object formed from it, and hence our English book, and the German B u c h. It is a probable suggestion, that the form now universally adopted for the book owes its origin to the employment of wood or of leaden tablets in this way. Slips of wood could not well make a roll, and if connected at all, they would naturally be gathered like leaves of modern paper. The Upsal copy of the Mceso-Gothic translation of the Gospels, generally known as the Codex Argenteus, believed to be of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth century, and one of the oldest parchments existing, is ' written on leaves of vellum arranged in book-fashion, as are also most of the Greek and Latin manuscripts now extant, the superior convenience of that form having led to its general adoption not far from the commencement of the Christian era, though the Herculanean and Egyptian papyri are all rolls. § 2. To an unpractised eye, however familiar with the individual characters, an ancient manuscript or inscription is but a confused and indistinct succession of letters, and no little experience is required to enable us readily to group these letters into syllables, the syllables into words, and to combine the words into separate periods. Indeed, the accidental omission of a space in printing between two successive words in our own language sometimes seriously embarrasses us, and if a whole sentence were thus printed, we should find it almost as unintelligible as a complicated cipher.* * The following sentence from Fuller's Worthies will serve to show the difficulty of reading an unbroken succession of words : " Itwillposethebestclerktoreadyeatospellthatdeedwhereinse ntencesclaoseswokdsandletteksarewithoutpointsokstopsallconii nuedtooethek." 298 MODE OF HEADING Lect. XIX. An ancient scholar, on the other hand, would be hardly less puzzled, were he to bo asked to read a composition, even of his own, divided and arranged according to the rules of modern typography. He would be distracted with the variety of characters, capitals, small letters, and italics, with the multiplicity of marks of punctuation, and the shattering of the periods into fragmentary members ; per- plexed with the often illogical divisions of the sentences and chapters, and embarrassed by the constant recurrence of references and anno- tations, all which would seem to him to serve little other purpose than to break the continuity of argument or narration, and to divert the attention of the reader from closely following the thoughts of his author. We may find an illustration of this in the unhappy disloca- tion and confusion of the narratives of the evangelists, by the division into chapter and verse, so injudiciously executed by Stephens, in the sixteenth century, and unwisely followed in all more recent transla- tions. If we read the Gospels as they were written, each as a continuous whole, we gain a very different impression from that derived from perusing them as we habitually do, in fragmentary sections and periods, and in fact, the restoration of the ancient integrity of form is almost the only change which most scholars would willingly see made in our English New Testament. Manuscript, indeed, even in our own language, can never be read in the thoughtless, half-mechanical way, in which we skim over the pages of a modern romance, or the columns of a newspaper, for the finest, clearest and most uniform chirography falls short of the regu- larity and easy legibility of typography, and the highest compliment we can pay a hand-writing is to say that it reads like print. § 3. The Oriental nations, whose manuscripts resemble those of the ancients in wanting capitals, italics, and punctuation, are leisurely readers, and as they follow the writing with the eye, they very frequently articulate the words, or at least move the lips, as we are apt to do in deciphering a difficult chirography. Indeed, such is the difficulty of reading manuscript so penned, that in cases where etiquette or other reasons require a written instead of a verbal message, the letter is sometimes accompanied by a reader to explain its purport to the recipient. A curious passage in the ' Confessions ' of St. Augustine seems to imply that the ancients usually articulated the words in their private reading ; for it is remarked, as a note- worthy particular in the habits of St. Ambrose, that he read by the eye alone, when engaged in private study. " When Ambrose was reading," says Augustine, " his eye passed over the page, and his mind searched out the sense of his author, but his organs of speech were silent. We often saw him studying in this inaudible way, and never otherwise, and we supposed that he feared, that if he read aloud, he shoull be interrupted by those who heard Leot. 2CIX. AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 299 him with, questions about the meaning of obscure passages ; or, perhaps, the desire of sparing his voice, which was easily fatigued, was a still better reason for this silent study." * But the ancient habits of thought were wholly irreconcilable with the inconsecutive, discontinuous style of relation or discussion and expression so prevalent in our time. Sententious, indeed, and highly elliptical the classical writers often were, but the thoughts were nevertheless consequent, and logically connected, though some links of the chain might be left to the reader's sagacity to supply. Besides this, the fulness of the ancient inflexions was a sure guide through the intricacies of the most involved period, and hence the Greeks and Bomans did not require those multiplied helps to easy reading which shallow thinking demands, and the habitual use of which so weakens the intelligence, that a constant craving for additional facilities is felt, and every year adds some new device for relieving the brain, at the expense of the eye-sight, in the mechanical arrangement of recorded words. That this ocular dissection, this material anatomy of lan- guage, has had an important influence on our modem European tongues, and on the current of the thoughts of which those languages are the vehicles, there is little doubt. It is true, that in the decline of ancient literature, the convenience of such devices, superfluous in more intellectual ages, began to be felt, especially in the reading of older authors, whose dialect was becoming more or less obsolete. The invention of many of them is due to the Alexandrian gram- marians, a school of critics and commentators who occupied them- selves much with the elucidation of the earlier Greek writers, and who are said to have introduced the Greek accents, and some other points, to facilitate the teaching of the language to foreigners, as well as the instruction of the young in reading. Their obvious adaptation to this purpose naturally secured them a ready reception in primary schools and higher seminaries, and in fact, as we learn from Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the difficulty of learning to read manuscript was so great, that it was necessary for the pupil to receive some grammatical instruction before taking reading lessons, obviously to enable him the more readily to separate an unbroken period into its component words. " We begin," says Dionysius (' De Admir. Vi Die. in Demo- sthene,' 52), " by committing to memory the names of the elements of speech called letters, t After learning these names, we are taught * Conf. lib. vi. § 3. f Athenasus, citing Callias (x. 79, p. 453), informs us that the names of the letters, and even the spelling of syllables, were arranged metrically, doubt- less as a help to the memory : — ■ T' &\' were often so small that a large volume was necessarily distributed among several offices to be printed. It would in this case be impossible to deter- mine precisely how many printed pages a given quantity of manu- script would fill, and of course the printer who took the latter portion of the copy, must labour under a good deal of uncertainty as to the paging and signatures of his sheets. Hence, there would sometimes occur a considerable break between the last page of the first part and the first page of the second, and this must either be left with an un- seemly and suspicious blank or filled up with new or extraneous matter. Thus, in John Smith's ' Generall Historie of Virginia,' 1624, there occurred in this way a hiatus of ten pages, and the author partially fills it with complimentary verses addressed to him by several friends, making this apology for their introduction : — " Now seeing there is this much Paper here to spare, that you should not be altogether cloyed with Prose; such Verses as my worthy Friends bestowed upon New England, I here present you, because with honestie I can neither reject nor omit their courtesies." In like manner the editor of Fuller's 'Worthies,' published in 1662, excuses the irregularity of the paging by saying that " the discounting of sheets to expedite the work at several presses hath occasioned the often mistake of the folios ;" and in ' Abel Eedivivus,' 1651, an erroneous computation, as to the space which manuscript would require, compelled the leaving of ten folios unpaged between page 440 and page 441, from which point another press had under- taken the printing. Leot. XIX. TYPOGRAPHY— SPELLING— PUNCTUATION. 303 It is however mainly in smaller matters, that the mechanical in- fluence of the press is most conspicuous, if not most important. Not only what in the nomenclature of the art are called " forms," that is, the number of pages inclosed in a single frame and printed at one operation on one piece of paper, but the dimensions of the page, and, in printing prose, the length of the lines also, are inflexible, and our equally rigid characters cannot be crowded, superposed, or indefinitely extended by lengthening their horizontal lines,* as they are in Oriental books, to fit them to the breadth of the page, but if there is a deficiency or an excess of matter, something must be added or omitted. Modern ingenuity, it is true, has contrived methods of accommodation, or, to use a word characteristic of our times, of compromise, by which appearances may often be saved without a too palpable sacrifice of the author's, or rather printer's, principles of orthography and punctuation. But, at a somewhat earlier stage of the art, the convenience of the compositor overruled all things, and, in spite of the improvements to which I have just alluded, there are few writers who do not even now sometimes suffer from the despot- ism of that redoubtable official. § 6. At the period when our language was in a more flux and un- settled condition, and the press was a less flexible instrument, if the words of the manuscript did not correspond exactly to the length of a line, and the difficulty could not be remedied by the insertion or omission of printer's spaces, without leaving staring blanks or a crowded condition of the words at once distasteful to a typographical eye and perplexing to the reader, a comma might be dropped or in- troduced, a capital exchanged for a small letter, or vice versa. So if the author used a word the spelling of which was not well settled (and all modern orthography was doubtful three hundred years ago), a letter or two might be added or omitted, to give it the proper length. This is the explanation of much of the irregular orthography which occurs in the older, and sometimes in more recent editions of printed books. The ingenuity of more modern printers, as I have already observed, has devised methods of removing or greatly lessening this embarrassment, chiefly by the dexterous use of spaces ; and the con- venience of spelling and punctuating according to a uniform standard so greatly overbalances the difficulty of accommodating the matter to the page, that authors now complain, not that the printer's ortho- graphy is too variable, but that it is tyrannically inflexible. Lan'dor, in his second conversation between Johnson and Tooke, tells us that Hume's orthography was overruled by his printers. He wrote the * In the Malmantile fiaccpiistato, Florence, 1688, and in the curious, lying Life of the Jesuit Anchieta, Rome, 1738, the letters a, e, and n are elongated by a horizontal stroke at bottom, when necessary to fill a space. 304. ORTHOGRAPHY. Lect. XIX. preterites and past participles of the weak verbs with a t final, as Milton did, as, for example, looht for looked, but in his printed works, the compositor and publisher would suffer no such departure from the established laws of the chapel. An eminent French philological writer, when accused of violating his own principles of orthography in one of his printed essays, thus replies : — " It was not I that printed my essay, it was Mr. Didot. Now Mr. Didot, I confess it with pain, is not of my opinion with regard to the spelling of certain plurals, and I cannot oblige him to print against his conscience and his habits. You know that every printing office has its rules, its fixed system, from which it will not consent to depart. For example, I think the present fashion of punctuation detestable, because the points are multiplied to a ridiculous excess. Well, I attempt to prove this by precept and example, and the very printers who publish my argu- ment scatter points over it, as if they were shaken out of a pepper- box. It is their way. What would you have ? They will print my theory only on condition that I will submit to their practice."* Habits of spelling soon become fixed. A bad speller cannot accu- rately copy a well-spelled manuscript, and if the apprentices in an office were not rigorously trained to an invariable system of spelling, the trouble they would occasion the proof-reader would be endless. Experience has shown that nothing is more difficult than to obtain an accurate reprint of an old edition, or the publishing of an old manuscript, with the original orthography ; and this is one reason why so many of the most valuable sources of information respecting the early forms and history of our language have never been made accessible by the press, and why later editors have rendered so many sterling old authors wholly valueless for all philological purposes, by changing or disguising their meaning, in the foolish attempt to fit them to the taste of the vulgar reader by modernizing their spelling and conforming their supposed erroneous grammar to the practice of the hour. A writer of the present day, who quotes a couplet of Chaucer, must expect that the printer will reform the orthography according to the latest edition of Webster, and if, in the indulgence of a passion for the archaic and the venerable, he venture to employ an old-fashioned form or an obsolescent word, the compositor, pitying his presumed ignorance or want of taste, will charitably amend the " copy," by substituting a word of a more current coinage. If, as has happened to the writer, he jestingly apply to a youth the old Euphuistic appellation of a juvenaZ, the printer will change his an- tiquated substantive into the adjective juvenfe, and if he sin<* ol a "grisly ghost," he may find his awe-inspiring, but somewhat Gemn, RifcrMtioiis Philologiquea, i. 355. Lect. XIX. LICENSES OP ANCIENT COPYISTS. 305 vague epithet, rendered more precisely descriptive by being printed with two z.* Eminent printers usually adopt some popular dictionary as a standard, and they allow the writers for whom they print no devia- tion from this authoritative canon. The dictionaries selected are often works of no real philological merit. The aim of their authors has been, not to present the language as it is, as the conjoined in- fluence of uncontrollable circumstances and learned labour has made it, but as, according to their crude notions, it ought to be. Every word-collector aspires to be a reformer, and the corrections of popular orthography are more frequently based on false analogies and mis- taken etymologies or erroneous principles of phonology, than founded in sound philological scholarship. In language, form is indistin- guishable from substance, or rather is substance. The dictionary- maker and the printer, who lord it over the form of our words, control the grammar of our language, and the philosophy of its structure ; they suggest wrong etymologies and thereby give a new shade of meaning to words ; and in short exert over speech a sway not less absolute or more conducive to the interests of good taste and truth in language, than that which the modiste possesses in the fashion of dress.f § 7. It must be admitted that the licenses of which I complain are older than the art of printing. Professional scribes in ancient times and in the middle ages habitually conformed the manuscripts they copied to the orthographical and grammatical standard of their own times, and they regularly changed every obsolete or obscure word or form of expression for something more agreeable to the taste, or less enigmatical to the intelligence of their contemporaries. They often corrected supposed errors in names, dates, facts, or if, in- stead of venturing upon absolute change, they more conscientiously inserted an explanatory gloss or conjectural emendation in the margin, a later copyist would incorporate the note or correction into the text. In manuscripts written in languages still spoken when a given copy J was made, we can never expect a near conformity M See two translations from Matthisson in the Whig Review for 1845. f Caxton, in the title-page to his edition of Higden, (I am obliged to quote from a modernized version,) says the Chronicle was " Imprinted by William Caxton, after having somewhat changed the rude and old English, that is to wit, certain words which in these days be neither used nor understanden." And in another place : " And now at this time simply imprinted and set in form D7 me, William Caxton, and a little embellished from the old making." J The etymology of copy presents a striking instance of the extravagances into which inquirers, whose study of languages is confined to grammars and dictionaries, run, when they seek the origin of words, not in their history as traced in actual literature, but in resemblances gathered from lexicons. I find ENG. LAN. X 306 LICENSES OF COPYISTS. Lect. XIX. to the words of the author, unless the writing is an original, or at least a contemporaneous transcript ; and in the latter case, if the penman happened to be of a different province from that of the writer, dialectic differences are almost sure to occur. Thus, the oldest manuscripts of Petrarch and Dante, and other Italian writers, seldom fail to hetray the birthplace of the copyist, by the shibboleth of his local dialect. In like mannei', when we compare manuscripts of the same work copied in successive centuries, we can trace the changes of the language almost as distinctly as in different original compositions of the corresponding periods.* We find an additional proof of the frequency and extent of the license indulged in by ancient copysts, in the comparison of the dialect of monumental inscriptions with that of literary works which have come down from the same periods. Our classical manuscripts, excepting those found at Herculaneum, and in a few instances in Egyptian mummy cases, are all comparatively modern. The forms of language in Greek and Latin inscriptions are generally much more archaic than in our copies of the works of contemporaneous writers. It is true, that something of the difference is to bo ascribed to the influence of what is called the lapidary style, and its consecrated standards of orthography and expression. Inscrip- tions engraved on marble or on brass are necessarily brief, laconic, elliptical, and the rigidity of these materials produced on old monu- mental writings effects analogous, in some respects, to those of the mechanical conditions of printing upon modern literature. Other differences are accounted for by the ignorance of the stone-cutters ; it stated in a well-known dictionary, that copy is from cope, in the sense of likeness. Under cope no such meaning is given, the nearest approach to it being, " to exchange or barter," but cope is said to be allied to the Arabic kafai, to be equal, to be like. Cope in the sense of exchanging or buying, is neither more nor less than the Anglo-Saxon ceapian, to chaffer, bargain or trade, whence also our cltapman and cheap. Copy is the Latin copia, signifying first, abundance, then facility or convenience, whence the phrase copiam facere alicujus, to furnish, grant, or communicate anything, from which latter form came the sense of " making a copy,' as a mode of communicating a writing. * The manuscripts of Piers Ploughman vary so widely, that Whitaker can explain the discrepancies only by the supposition of a rifaccimento by the author himself, at a considerably biter period, when his opinions had undergone im- portant changes ; but a comparison of Whitaker's and Wright's texts reveals so wide differences in grammar, vocabulary, and orthography, that it is quite unreasonable to refer the two recensions to one writer, and it is by no means improbable that both are very unlike the author's original. It is supposed that the two manuscripts of Layamon, so admirably edited by Sir F. MaHden, do not differ more than half a century in their ages, but the de- partures of the later from the earlier text are too great to be accounted fa, except by imputing to the copyist very great license in transcription. Lect. XIX. COPYISTS— CHAUCER— THE 'OKMULUM.' 307 but after all, it is not probable that inscriptions commemorating the public acts of officers of high rank, or other important events, and of course executed under a responsible inspection, would differ very widely from the current grammatical forms or orthography of their time, and hence we must infer that copyists and editors have made considerable changes in the manuscripts they published. Thiss boc Effl ojjerr si)?e writenn, Himm bidde id J?at het write rihht, Swa summ J?iss boc himm tsechej?^, All Jjwerrt lit affterr }?att itt iss Uppo |?iss firrste bisne, Wif?J? all swillc rime alls her iss sett, WiJjJ? all se fele wordess ; & tatt he loke wel J?att he An bbcstaff write twiyyess, Eyywhser fjaer itt uppo J?iss boc Iss writenn o fjatt wise. Loke he well Jjatt het write swa, Forr he ne mayy nohht elless Onn Ennglissh writenn rihht te word Jjatt wite he wel to sojje." * It is one of the most interesting questions in all literature how far the original text of Shakespeare has suffered from the license, the negligence, or the indolence of those who, with type and pen, have multiplied his works. The dispute is likely to be a long one, and if Collier's folio does not prove the existence of myriads of errors in the current editions, it at least shows an alarming boldness of commen- tators in the way of conjectural emendation. * " And whoso willeth this my book To write again hereafter, Him bid I, that he write it right, So as this book him teacheth, Throughout according as it is In this the first example, With all such rhythm as here is set With words, eke, just. so many ; And let him look to it, that he Write twice each single letter, Wherever it, in this .my book, In that wise is ywritten. Look he well that be write it so, For otherwise he may not In English write the words aright, That, wete he well, is soothfast." ( 309 ) NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. On the Words Make, Maker. (See p. 307.) Trench, Select Glossary, under Hake, Maker, states that these words, "as ap- plied to the exercise of the poet*s art," and " as equivalent to poet," are not found in any book anterior to the revival of the study of the Greek literature and language in England. It will hardly be said that the study of Greek was revived in England before the Reformat ion, or, in any event, in the fourteenth c ntury. In the lines quoted from Chaucer, in the text, I think, making must be used in this sense, as also by the same poet in several other passages ; as, for example, in these verses from the conclusion of the Complaint of Hars and Venus, which are quoted for another purpose on p. 359 : " And eke to me it is a great penaunce, Sith rime in English hath sock scarcite, To folow, word by word, the curiosite Of Graunson, flour of hem that make in Fraunce." There are several similar instances in the Legend of Good Women, Thus : " Alas, that I ne had English rime, or prose Suffisaunt, this floure to praise aright, But helpeth, ye that han conning and might, Ye lovers, that can make of sente- ment ! " The lines that follow these are entirely decisive as to the meaning of make in this passage, if indeed those just quoted leave any room for doubt. Again : " The man hath served you of his con- ninges, And forthred 17011 your law in his makinges, All bo it that he can not well endite." So also, "He shal never more agilten in this wise, But shal maken as ye woll devise, Of women trewe in loving al hir life." And, "But now I charge thee, upon thy life, That in thy legende thou make of this wife, Whan thou hast other smale ymade before." In Robert de Brunne's Prologue to bis Chronicle, Hearne's ed. p. xcix, I find, " I mad noght for no disours, Ne for no segger3, no harpours," &c. ; and on p. c. : " J?at may |?ou here in Sir Tristrem, Ouer gestes it has |>e steem, Ouer all J?at is or was, If men it sayd as made Thomas," &c. ; also on p. ci. ; " For |>is makyng I wille no mede, Bot gude prayere, when ye it rede." In Piers Ploughman, Vision, verse 7470, we have : — " And thow medlest with makynges, And myghtest go saye thi Sauter ; " and in verse 7483, " To solacen hym. some tyme, As I do whan I make." Make occurs, in the same sense, in the Confessio Amantis of Gower, Pauli's edition, vol. ill. 384 : — " My muse doth me for to wite And saith, it shall be for my beste, Fro this day forth to take reste, That I no more of love make," &c. See also notes to vol. i. of Dyce'a edi- tion of Skelton, p. 186, and passages there cited. ( 310 ) LECTURE XX. TUB ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS AFFECTED BY THE ART OF PRINTING. § 1. Early printing in England. § 2. Confusion of spelling. § 3. Printing and the Reformation. § 4. Printing of classical works : influence of Latin upon the English language. § 5. Freedom of the press. § 6. Influence of printing upon the English language modified by the character and cir- cumstances of the people. § 7. Influence of popular literature and the periodical press upon the language. II, § 1. Theke are circumstances peculiar to the history of English literature, which have rendered the mechanical conditions and imper- fections of the typographical art more powerfully influential upon the language itself, than was elsewhere, in general, the case. Caxton, the first English printer, was indeed both an Englishman by birth, and a man of scholarly attainments, but he acquired the art at Cologne, and it is probable, though not certain, that his first produc- tion, ' The Becuyell of the Historyes of Troye,' was printed either at Cologne or at Bruges. When he established his press at Westminster soon after the year 1470, he brought over workmen from the Continent, and, were stronger evidence wanting, the names of his successors, Lettou and Machlinia, Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, Berthelette, Faques, Treveris, would sufficiently indicate that they also were of foreign birth. Indeed it appears from Strype's ' Memoirs of Cranmer,' * that as late as 1537, the printers in England were generally " Dutchmen that could neither speak nor write true English," and when Grafton applied for an exclusive privilege for the translation of the Bible which goes by his name, he represented that " for covetousness' sake, these foreign printers would not employ learned Englishmen to oversee and correct their work," so that, as he complains, " paper, letter, ink, and correction would be all naught." Three years later Grafton asked permission to print the Bible at Paris, where he says that not only could he procure better and cheaper paper, but that the workmen were more skilful. Any one, who has had occasion to print so much as a familiar quotation in a See Southey's Common Place Book, vol. 4. Leot. XX. EARLY PRINTING IN ENGLAND. 311 foreign tongue, can judge whether a volume printed in a language unknown to the compositor would be likely to prove very correct. Besides this, it must be remembered that the art of calligraphy had been less cultivated in England than on the Continent, that the characters in common use differed somewhat from those employed in the other European languages, and that the contractions and abbre- viations stood, of course, for different combinations of sounds or letters. An instance of this is the employment of b and