than hitherto, upon the page of history. The ecclesiastical Slavonic, which some claim to have been the original Bulgarian, although no longer a living language, is still used by them, in common with both the Russians and the Servians, as the language of the Scriptures, and of their religious books. In all nations old languages and old forms of language find their last hiding place in the temples and services of religion, and there claim forever the right of sanctuary. Nothing but Time, which wears out all things, or the spirit of Evangelical Reform, which can remove any obstacle, has ever sufficed to dislodge them from these cherished retreats. The present Bulgarian is far inferior, as a language, in the richness of its forms and the completeness of its structure, to the ecclesiastical Slavonic. Its contour is plainly defined as separate from all the other Slavic languages, by certain euphonic principles and tendencies which prevail in it.

3. The Illyrian. Under this general title are included in one, the Servian, Croatian and Slowenic dialects, which themselves also in turn, might be resolved into still other dialects. Uniformity is not found to be a law of human development in the department of speech, any more than in any other direction, secular or religious, practical or intellectual. The Servian dialect is very rich in vowels, and so exceedingly musical to the ear. With the perfect sacrifice, indeed, of all scholastic instincts, and with none of that love of archetypal etymology, so characteristic of the Grecians, who, while always at work artistically upon the forms of language, to improve them, yet always left carefully, on each new form, some mark, that should forever inurn the remembrance of the one that they had destroyed; the Servians, like the old Iconoclasts, break down old words and

These are, as quoted by Schleicher (Sprachen Europas, p. 207) from Schafarik, the great historian of the Slavonic literature, the following,: (1) the insertion of an s before t, when softened by an i or j placed after it, as in noszt for notj, night; (2) the insertion of z (English zh) before a softened d or instead of it, as in mezda for medja, limits; (3) a peculiar adjective genitive-ending in -ago; (4) the use of the personal pronouns, mi, ti, si, instead of the attributives moj, my, tvoj, thy, and svoi, his, as in sarstro mi, my kingdom.

parts of words, and break them off with eager pleasure, if they can only thereby get a fuller, finer, sweeter sound. Thus consonants have been driven everywhere through the language, out of words where they had nestled for centuries. The Croatian and Slowenic dialects have no historical importance.

II. The Western Slavic family includes four special dialects, which, on account of the historical insignificance of most of those who have spoken them, we can dismiss rapidly. They are,

1. The Lechish.

2. The Tschechish.

3. The Sorbenwendish. 4. The Polabish.

The Lechish is so called from the once powerful Lechs; and its domain was formerly much wider than now. The Polish and the Kashubish, a dialect of the Polish, are its present representatives. In this language sibilants abound, and, as they are quite varied, the differences between them are often difficult of discovery, except to a native's ear. Besides also being full of lisping and hissing utterances, it contains many nasal sounds, and is distinguished by a double vocalization of the letter 1, as either a palatal or a guttural, which is peculiar. Poland lost her place among the nations by the selfish internecine strife of her princes and great men, with each other; and, though in the days of Knight Errantry, her sons exhibited as energetic manly martial qualities as those of any other people, yet having been once laid prostrate by parricidal hands, she has never, under the tyranny of her spiritual conquerors at Rome, or of her civil conquerors at St. Petersburg, been allowed the privilege of a resurrection. She has never, therefore, figured on the stage of history; and her language awakens no pleasant memories of travel and discovery, of research and spoil, of pleasure and profit, in the hearts of the lovers of learning. The fountains of knowledge, and thought, and truth, and all beauty, have been opened for them on other shores, and by other hands, and Poland is spoken of only with sadness.

The Tschechish is the speech of the Slavonic inhabitants of Bohemia, Moravia, and northwestern Hungary, and occurs sporadically throughout almost all Hungary. In respect to both of its two leading dialects, the Bohemian and Slowakish, but especially the former, it can boast of an historical, organic identity that dates back half way, at least, to the beginning of the Christian Era.

The Sorbenwendish, or Sorbish, as it is called by the Germans, or Wendish, as the Lusatians name it, prevails in limited parts of Upper and Lower Lusatia. The Polabish, as the word indicates, (po, along, and Labe, the Elbe) was spoken more or less, anciently, by those living on both. sides of the Elbe. It disappeared, as a vernacular language, about two centuries ago, although some few families, in that region, still keep it alive among themselves.

V. The Gothic family. In the Gothic version of the Scriptures, made by Ulphilas in the year A. D. 388, are all the remains, that the world now possesses, of that noble old language, the queen-mother of so many princely languages. The Goths were living, at that time, on the lower side of the Danube, around its mouth. In Herodotus they are called the Téra, and in Tacitus, the Getæ, and are described as living, in those times, in the northern part of Thrace, between the Hamus and the Danube. In later times they divided into two portions, viz.: the Ostrogoths, or eastern Goths, and the Visigoths, or western Goths,

1 In Menander's Comedies, a réros or Aaós is introduced, as the standing representative of a slave, and brought from Thrace to Greece. The Féros was a Goth; and the Ados (Latin Davus for Daevus, the fuller form of Dacus), a Dacian. Compare with Ados for AáFos, also véos for véfos, Lat. novus, and ¿óv for Fór, Lat. ovum. Strabo expressly states that Adкoi and Adoi are the same. When the Getae and Daci are represented as occupying separate regions, the division is always this, viz. that the Getae live in the north-eastern part of the regions about the mouth of the Danube, and the Daci in the south-western. As from the title Getae came Gothi, Getini, Gothoni, or Gothones, as they were variously called by Latin authors, so from Daci came Dacini, afterwards contracted into Dani; and the modern Danes represent the ancient Daci. In the Middle Ages, indeed, we find writers using Dacus for Danus, and Dacia for Dania or Denmark. In Russia, also, a Dane is called a Datschanin, and in Lapland a Dazh. Vid. Grimm's Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, p. 132.

the former settling in Italy, and the latter in Spain. Their language, however, did not take root, successfully, in either country. A few Gothic memorials were left behind in Italy; and in Spain, besides a few Gothic baptismal names and the garnered pride of a few old noble families of Gothic blood, all records of their ancient dominion there are obliterated. In the Gothic languages are included—

1. The low German.

2. The high German.

1. The low German embraces

(1.) The Norse or Scandinavian languages.

(2.) The Anglo-Saxon.

(3.) The Frisic.

(4.) The low Dutch.

(1.) The Norse languages include three special dialects the Icelandic, Swedish and Danish.

The Icelandic, or old Norse dialect, is of a high antiquity. It was originally translated from Norway to Iceland, and has there wonderfully retained its early characteristics.

The Swedish and Danish may be properly called the new Norse languages. These are greatly changed from their first estate in every way. The Swedish is the purest Norse of the two. The Danish has been greatly affected by the contact of the German, and changed its old full a-sound in many words to e. The Norwegian dialect has been so entirely overtopped and overgrown by the neighboring Danish, that it has shrunk down into perfect insignificance, and deserves no separate place in history. The Danish prevails also in the Faroe, Shetland and Orkney Islands.

The Norse languages exhibit, as such, two remarkable specialties:

(a.) The suffixing of the definite article (hinn, hin, hit) to the substantive, as if a part of it, as in sveininn (m) the young man; eignin (f) the possession; and skeipit (f) the ship.

(b.) A peculiar passive flexion. An original reflexive pronoun is appended immediately to the verb, giving it, not as would be natural, a reflexive sense, but a passive one.

In this respect, however, these languages agree with the Latin, although, in the latter, the fact is more disguised. Thus brenni, "I burn," is, in the passive, brennist, “ I am burnt;" and brennum, "we burn," becomes brennumst, "we are burned." The singular and plural forms are the same, for the other persons respectively, as for the first; and these are distinguished only by the different personal pronouns, prefixed to them.

(2.) The Anglo-Saxon.

The Anglo-Saxons first went to England, in the middle of the fifth century. In the place of its nativity, their language, as such, has disappeared. What relics remain of it, on the continent, are to be found only as membra disjecta, in some few low German dialects.

The English language, however, which, for all the ends and wants of human speech, has never been surpassed by any language upon earth, is ribbed with its oaken strength. While it has large admixtures of words derived from the Celtic Aborigines of England, and still more of Latin origin, received from its Roman and Norman invaders, its predominant type is yet Anglo-Saxon. The language in which such an author as Shakspeare, could find his native air and element, while honored by the great genius who enrobed himself in it, is yet proved thereby, to have in it adaptations to all the varied phases of human life, and all the multiplied complexities of human thought and feeling, which raise it, as a whole, to a height above that of any other human tongue. Who would expect, for example, to see Shakspeare, when translated into Latin or French, or Spanish, or even German, appear with his own immortal beauty unimpaired? The same lustrous face would shine upon us, but only through a mist. As well might one attempt to deliver, from some petty stringed instrument, tones that can resound only from the loud swelling organ, as to hope to express his utterances truly, and in a style as if vernacular, in any other language than his own. In no language has a pyramid of literature, so high, so broad, so deep, so wondrous, been erected, as in the English. In no other language, are there such storied memories of