AN ELEMENTARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. By R. G. LATHAM, M.A., M.D., &c. LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE: LATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. PREFACE. BETWEEN the end of the third and the middle of the sixth century a language different from both the original British and the Latin of the Roman period was introduced into England. It was the mother tongue of the present English. We know the direction in which it spread; because in Wales and Scotland the original Celtic still keeps its ground. And we know that about A.D. 600 it was firmly established in the Eastern half of South Britain as the English. Two names of two divisions of the German family, Angle and Saxon, are also known to us. But the date of its first introduction, the rate at which it encroached upon the earlier forms of speech, along with the exact way in which it has extended itself, are points about which we know very little. This is, doubtless, a matter of regret. On the other hand, however, if we look upon the study of the English Language purely and simply as grammarians, we can dispense with the study of its external history; or, at least, the two branches of investigation can be kept separate. As to the essentially foreign and German character of the English, the language speaks for itself. We know it familiarly as it is spoken at the present moment. We have specimens of it as old as the eighth century, and we have a rich intermediate literature. Moreover we have the present German, |