place. By way of Venice, or through Morocco and Spain, a portion of Arabian science was carried to the west, and with it many of the technical terms which it employed. The elements of Algebra and the figures of Arithmetic, wholly unknown in Europe before, were derived from the same

source.

PART SECOND.

BRIEF SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

44. In ancient Britain and Celtic Gaul, the language of the people was intimately combined with their religion. The Druids were the teachers of both, and were the rulers of the country. Every thing, of binding force over the public mind, issued from the sacred groves. Such was England, when Cesar's legions raised the Roman eagles on its shores. This distinguished scholar, as well as conqueror, has told us that these contiguous nations had the same religion; a similar form of government and laws; and the same general features of character. Their speech was like themselves, rude, energetic, irregular, and little known in writings of any kind.

The Roman dominion in this country, which in some form, lasted more than four hundred years, introduced a change which is still descernible in the old books; but the rude state of these early times, and the great subsequent revolutions, have left us no authentic records of their precise nature or extent.

45. The invasions by the Picts and Scots greatly harassed the inhabitants of South Britain, but

produced no essential change in their language; because these invasions did not lead to conquest and eventual union of the people; and because, though hostile to each other, their language was nearly the same. It was when the Saxons came to establish themselves in Britain, and from the thrones of their various kings, to wield their dominion, that the whole moral order was changed. Their language of Gothic origin was commingled with the Gaelic; and of the rough strong materials of both, the foundation of our modern English was formed. A portion of those native inhabitants who escaped the slaughter of conquest, disdaining a foreign yoke, retired to the mountains of Wales and of Scotland, where their ancient language and distinguishing features of character may still be plainly traced.

46. The Saxons and original Britons remaining in England, were united under the heptarchy, in all the intercourse of social life, and on the consolidation of that confederacy, became completely one people. There was very little of exterior influence to effect the regular progress in their language. Their acquaintance with the Danes was, like that of the Picts and Scots, chiefly in the clashing of arms, and not in the connexions of domestic life.

47. The reign of Alfred, which immediately succeeded, presents an other great epoch in the literature and language of England. This Prince, under the numerous disadvantages which surrounded him, appears to have been, as to all personal qualities, one of the greatest monarchs that ever wielded a scepter. He wrote several works with his own hand, some of which still exist, and are

the standard specimens of the language at that time. To him Oxford is chiefly indebted for its subsequent splendor; and it is not too much to say, that the national greatness of England has taken a higher course from the impulse given by this extraordinary man. He shines as a brilliant star, seen through the cloudy mantle of the night; and we cannot read his history without a powerful feeling of admiration for his talents and his virtues.

48. The next important epoch is the Norman conquest. This produced an essential change in the character of the English language, and the Norman French, being formally introduced by an edict of William the Conqueror, continued to be the language of the court, and of legal proceedings, for three centuries, down to the time of Edward the Third.

49. The discovery of America and of the eastern passage to India, during the reign of Henry the Seventh, opened new scenes to the wondering inhabitants of Europe, and gave a direction to commerce; to the intercourse and policy of nations, unknown before.

These recent events, with the art of printing, have greatly increased the means of knowledge, and opened various channels to improvement, mental, physical, and social, beyond those possessed by former ages. They have also extended their irresistible consequences to the English language; but this subject has not hitherto received that attention, as a great concern of public interest, to which, by its relative importance, it is so justly entitled.

50. One circumstance of great interest in relation to our language, seems not to be at all adverted

race.

to by the British writers: and they continue to publish its vocabulary, as if chiefly made for London alone. But the man of enlarged mind can hardly fail to perceive that this language, instead of being, as formerly, limited to England, has, within a comparatively short period, been spread over vast regions in the four quarters of the globe; and by the joint influence of the two most commercial nations, is still extending with increased rapidity. From every human probability it is soon to be the language of more than a hundred millions of people, and perhaps of one-third of the human It is the common property of these extensive communities, so widely separated from each other; the instrument of their intellectual improvement, their social enjoyment, their commercial transactions: the great mental attendant, from which the dearest ties of domestic life derive their highest gratification: the handmaid of science in all its walks: the medium of instruction, civil, moral, and religious: the basis of all the relations of war and peace of public security, and personal right of jurisprudence, and the decisions of life and death. This whole composition of individual elevation and national glory, so interwrought with every ligament of social existence, all this amazing system of intellectual machinery depends on the combinations of twenty-six little marks, of different forms, made on paper, and called letters.

51. The astonishing number of changes capable of being produced by the varied uses of a few elementary materials, afford so many instances of the simple sublime, in the plans of Divine wisdom. All that music ever did, or ever can perform, depends on the variations wrought on seven notes. Nine figures, with a cipher, in their combinations,

give all possible powers of number, and the whole machinery on earth is reducible to the five distinctive forms of the wedge, the lever, the wheel, the pulley, and the screw. All these analogies, drawn from the principles of other branches of science, point to a course almost directly opposite to that so long pursued in grammar schools: for though language, especially the English, in its present structure, is too irregular to be reduced to mathematical precision, its elements may, to a considerable degree, be analyzed, their combinations discovered, their anomalies lessened, and a basis laid for gradual improvement, according to general and consistent laws.

52. Scarcely any idea appears to have prevailed, among English scholars, that their language has an origin and a character of its own. So little was known of independent English rules, that the celebrated Milton, may, in the following passage, be considered as in some degree the interpreter for the British universities in his time. "The scholars should begin their studies with some good grammar, either that now used or any better: and while this is doing, their speech is to be fashioned to a distinct and clear pronunciation, as near as may be to the Italian, especially in the vowels; for we Englishmen, being far northerly, do not open our mouths in the cold air wide enough to grace a southern tongue: but we are observed by all nations to speak exceeding close and inward; so that to smatter Latin with an English mouth is as ill as hearing law French."

53. It is only by an attention to the elementary structure of our own language, on scientific principles, that rational improvement can be expected.