spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant, our father, is in good health: he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son" (Gen. xliii. 25-29).

5. In the New Testament, the first, fourth, and seventeenth chapters of St. John's Gospel have only four words in the hundred that are not of English origin. You could not do better than try to pick out the exceptions, taking a few verses a day till you have examined the three chapters thoroughly.

Our greatest writers are marked by nothing more strikingly than the large proportion of purely English words they use. Thus the number of these in a hundred words used in lengthened passages is as follows in the authors named :-Chaucer, 88 to 93; Spenser, 86; Shakspere, 88 to 91; Milton, 80 to 90; Tennyson, 87 to 89; Ruskin, 73 to 84.

In the following lines from Byron, all the words are purely English, except the two in italics :

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

6. To help you to know which are pure English words study the following rules :

1. The articles, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions, as a rule, are Saxon, that is, English.

So also are the following:

2. Adjectives with irregular comparison; as-good, better; bad, worse, &c.

3. Irregular and defective verbs; as-have, go, am.

4. Auxiliary verbs; as-shall, will, may, can, do, have, must.

5. Words which change their vowels in words formed from them

1. Words formed from ADJECTIVES, such as-OLD, elder; STRONG, strength; LONG, length; BROAD, breadth.

2. Words formed from VERBS-BLESS, bliss; KNIT, knot, net; SIT, seat; FALL, fell; HOLD, held; SLAY, slew; FLY, flew; TAKE, took; GIVE, gave; RISE, rose; LIE, lay; SIT, set, &c.

3. NOUNS with a change of vowel in the plural: FOOT, feet; TOOTH, teeth. So goose, mouse, man, woman, &c.

6. OLD ENGLISH ENDINGS of words are a sign, in most cases, that the words are Old English.

They are

NOUNS in hood, head, ship, dom, th, t, ness, rick, wick, &c.
NOUNS in ling, kin, ock, ie. They are generally diminutives.
NOUNS in en (always).

ADJECTIVES in ful, ly, ish, en, ern, ward, some.
VERBS in en.

7. MOST MONOSYLLABLES are Old English.

EXERCISES.

Write essays embracing Old English words given in the lists. Make out lists of words shown to be Old English by the preceding rules. III.-The DANES, and Northmen generally, were the first new people from abroad who disturbed the English population, and introduced themselves among them as a new element. The Danish invasions lasted nearly two hundred years (in round numbers from A.D. 800 to A.D. 1000) and left their traces in a number of words, though in fewer than might have been expected, from the close resemblance of Danish itself to Old English. Here are some:

By, town-Whitby, Derby.

SON, after proper names-Swainson, that is Sweyn's son.

WOLF, or GUELPH, which is the same word. This is the Queen's

name.

The words bait, bray, dish, dock, doze, dwell, flimsy, fling, gust, ransack, rap, whim, force (a waterfall), din, and gill (a ravine) are Norse. There are, no doubt, a great many more Norse words, and Celtic words also, in common use in our Provincial Dialects.

IV.-1. A great change in the language was brought about by the Norman Conquest (A.D. 1066). The Normans had already entirely laid aside their own Norse, and become Frenchmen, using French as their speech. Coming as conquerors, and disdaining for a long time to use English, which was despised as the language of a subject people, French thus became the language of the court, of the law, and of the upper classes in Church and State. Indeed, it had already been cultivated at Court in the later days of the Saxon kings, to whom Normandy was then what Paris afterwards became to us under the reign of Louis XIV., when Charles II. had become his pensioner.

2. The adoption of any large number of French words as a part of our common language was only attained by slow degrees. The two currents of national feeling, like distinct streams in a common channel, flowed, long, side by side, before they mingled. French was the only language a gentleman could use; but to the English it was the speech of their haughty and hated oppressors. Time, however, softened the animosities of both nations. The Frenchman came to look on England as his country, and the Englishman ceased to think of him as a foreigner. The one found he needed to use English words, and the other that many things for which there were no words in English had words to express them in

French. The arts of life, its refinements, its learning, had often none but Norman terms to embody them.

3. But it was only by a very slow and unperceived progress that Norman French came to be finally incorporated with the common speech. In the thirteenth century boys in grammar schools were still taught French as the principal study. Members of the universities were ordered to converse in French or Latin, and the proceedings of Parliament and the minutes of the Corporation of London were recorded in French. The Normans did not, indeed, for centuries give up the hope of making French the language of England, and strove to throw English out of use by much the same steps as have been used in our own times by Denmark in reference to German, in the Duchies, and by Russia with Polish, in Poland.

4. One effect of this court favour for the language of the conquerors is seen in the fact that nearly all the authors who appeared for nearly three centuries after the Conquest wrote in French. It was not till the beginning of the fourteenth century that the proscription of English was finally removed, by the discontinuance of the compulsory use of French in the public schools, and by the passing of a statute (A.D. 1362) directing that English should thenceforth be used in the courts of justice.

5. In the writings of the two great authors of the fourteenth century— Wickliffe and Chaucer-we have the means of noting how far the incorporation of French words into English had then advanced. In Wicliffe, who wrote for the body of the people, the English element so largely prevails that there are few words used by him which are not still in use to-day. Take, for example, the following verse of his translation of St. Matthew :

"And rain came down, and floods camen, and winds blewen, and thei hurleden in to that house: and it felle down, and the fallyng down thereof was grete."

The only difference between this and English of the present day is in the use of the Old English affix en in the tenses of the verbs, and the variations in the spelling of some words.

6. It is to Chaucer that we are in great part indebted for the final admission of a rich addition of Norman-French words to our language. In his poems he gave them a permanent place in our tongue, instead of the unsettled use in mere conversation and public documents. The foundation and construction of his style is purely English; but he introduces many Anglo-Norman words, some of which have since become obsolete. Here is a specimen of his language turned into modern English in the alternate lines:

"Sustyr, quoth he, this is my ful assent,
Sister, quoth he, this is my full assent,
With all thavys heer of my parlement,
With all the advice here of my parliament,

That gentil Palamon, your ownè knight,
That gentle Palamon, your own knight,

That serveth you with hertè, will, and might,
That serveth you with heart, will, and might,

And ever hath doon syn ferste tyme ye hym knewe,
And ever hath done since first time ye him knew,
That ye schul of your grace upon him rewe,
That ye
should of your grace upon him rue,
And take him for your husbond, and for lord;
And take him for your husband and for lord;
Lene me youre hand, for this is our accord.
Lend me your hand, for this is our accord.
Betwixt hem was imaad, anon, the bond,
Betwixt them was made, anon, the bond,
That highté matrimoyn or marriage,
That is called matrimony or marriage,
By alle the counseil of the baronage.
By all the council of the baronage.

Here the words assent, advice, parliament, gentle, serveth, grace, accord, matrimony, marriage, council, and baronage are Norman words. You may judge how poor our language would have been without additions of which these are only a very small sample. The rest of the lines are in Old English.

V. The next great addition to our language was directly from the LATIN. Many words had already been adopted from it, through the Roman occupation and the Norman-French; but with the Revival of Learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the additions made were largely increased. It will be well, however, to notice the earlier contributions first.

1. The Latin words introduced during the Roman rule in Britain nearly all refer to military affairs, or military posts. They are such as—

CASTRUM, a camp. You see it in Chester, Doncaster, Lancaster, Colchester, Chesterton, Manchester.

COLN, for colonia, a colony-as in Lincoln.

PoNs, pontis, a bridge-as in Pontefract, Ponteland, &c.

PORTUS, a gate-as in Bridport, &c.

STREET, from stratum, a road—as in Watling Street, Stretton, &c.

2. A number of Latin ecclesiastical words were introduced by Augus

tine and the Roman missionaries who followed him, as

Chalice (L. and Gr., calyx, a cup).

Cloister (L., claustrum, an enclosed space).

Mass (L., missa (est), the congregation is dismissed.

The mass

got this name because communion was celebrated after the dis

missal of the general congregation).

Minster (L., monasterium, a monastery).

Monk (L., monachus).

Pall (L., pallium, a cloak).

Provost (L., prepositus, the dignitary placed first).

3. The mass of Norman words introduced before and after the Conquest were originally Latin. The mighty empire of Rome spread Latin over a large part of Europe, as the language of the various populations. Hence, many languages, formed since its grandeur passed away, are monuments of its former overshadowing greatness. No fewer than six modern languages, called the Romance languages, from their Roman source, have thus been formed from Latin. They are the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian, and the Roumansch, or Romanese, spoken in the Grisons, in Switzerland. Let me give you a few simple rules which help to point out words thus derived from Latin, through the French, at an earlier or later date :

(1.) Nouns in our, ier, chre, or eer; as-ardour, cavalier, sepulchre, mutineer.

(2.) Nouns and adjectives in que; as physique, unique, oblique.

Words beginning with counter, pur, and sur; as-counterpoise, purchase, purloin, surcease, surfeit.

(4.) If words of Latin origin are much varied from the Latin form in their English spelling, it is probable that they have come through the French; as

Delight; L., deliciæ; F., délice.
People; L., populus; F., peuple.

Friar; L., frater; F., frère.

Costume; L., consuetudo; F., coutume.

Royalty; L., regalitas; F., royauté.

But these rules are not always to be depended upon, for many words which they affect come directly from the Latin.

4.-1. During the period known as the Revival of Learning, which in England was later than on the Continent, and may be spoken of as the reign of Henry VIII. and his immediate successors, Latin words came into the language in great numbers. Indeed the copious use of Latin words was only stopped by the French tastes, fashions, and habits of thought which rose with the Restoration. Authors, vain of their scholarship, or so accustomed to Greek and Latin that they forgot that the people were not so learned as themselves, delighted in sowing their pages broadcast with Greek and Latin words and quotations. Bacon, Burton, Sir Thomas Browne, Jeremy Taylor, Milton, in his prose, and others, thus Latinised their style to a large extent, even in its structure. But the immoderate use of such foreign elements passed away, and the language remained permanently enriched by great numbers of words which are now among the richest treasures of the language. It is to these authors that we owe, for example, such words as method, function, numerous, penetrate, scientific, delineation, dimension, idiom, figurative, audacious, prodigious, ponderous, portentous, consolidate, propitious, symptom, and many others.