conquerors to the capitol,—is far enough from the idiomatic force of Swift, the impassioned vehemence of Motley, or the pictorial beauty of Prescott; and Robertson lacks both adaptation of style to subject and idiomatic worth, though widely read in his time and since, because of his subject-matter and the lack of better authors. The style of Lord Macaulay is wanting in the calm, serious tone that carries conviction of truth. It is too much that of the advocate; too much set upon striking effects. It interests and captivates, but it has more of dazzling brilliancy than the clear serene light of truth. It is not promotive of thought, nor suited to lodge great truths in the mind. It must not be denied that it has also great merits;—great clearness and precision, beauty and aptness of illustration, marked by a rare command of all the resources of the language. But its popularity, great as it is, lacks the soberer qualities of style, which are necessary to secure it its present high regard in after times, and to make it a safe model for

students.

The revival of a better spirit of poetry, the study of old English, and the better moral and religious sentiment that has prevailed the last three fourths of a century, have done much to secure better thought and better language, - have led to a more idiomatic Saxon style, not only among the prose writers, but still more among the poets, as Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Mrs. Browning. On the other hand the influence of German literature has not been favorable to the purity of our idiom. Mr. Carlyle, who did most to introduce it to the public, developed a peculiar style for himself, which by reason of the oftentimes valuable thought and earnestness of the author, obtains some admirers, and so far exerts

an unwholesome influence. So occasionally individual instances may be expected of departures from the common standard, but the sober good sense of the English mind cannot long be turned away by false lights.

In Great Britain there still exists great diversity in the use of the language among the different classes of society. The long-settled habits and usages of English life do not seem to be easily flexible to the changes going on, or to common influences, as in this country. The common mind is moved more slowly, diversities of

idiom require time to be reduced to a common standard; new words, developed in trade or the arts, or by foreign intercourse, are more restricted in their use, become popularized less frequently, and only after the lapse of a longer time than in this country. The better classes speak better and the common people worse than in the United States, where the democratic spirit unfortunately tends to lower the standard from the best use, and the greater intercourse with all parts of the country, by migration and the common issues of the press, tends to preserve a common idiom. For these reasons, too, there is little doubt that the common people of this country use a much larger vocabulary than the same class in Great Britain. If we add to these the new words that have been derived from our foreign population, from the peculiarities of our national government and social institutions, and from the different circumstances and employments of our people generally, we shall find not only a larger vocabulary but in many respects a different one from that in common use in Great Britain. The various political, religious, and social relations find their proper expression in classes of words peculiar to the different countries. There are also retained in this

country, and falsely called Americanisms, many words of good old English stock, which have been handed down from the original colonists, but have fallen out of use in the mother country. There are again some words which have first obtained a special use in their respective localities, and have afterwards become naturalized.

For a valuable analysis of words used in different senses in the two countries the reader is referred to a paper on Provincialisms, Archaisms, and Americanisms, in "Worcester's Dictionary," and for a more full discussion of the subject, and for additional suggestions, to Marsh, - last lecture of his first series.

The orthography of the language can hardly yet be considered as settled in regard to all words, though comparatively little change has been made on the forms laid down by Johnson. Attempts have been made at different times, as by Dr. Webster, in the earlier editions of his Dictionary, but with little success. The language is not very submissive to the theories of grammarians or lexicographers; its life and spontaneity cannot long be held in abeyance or subjected to any predetermined forms, however plausible or well reasoned. The later efforts of phonographers meet no better success with the common mind, to say nothing of the opposition of all interested in philological studies.

Of late years the changes in pronunciation have been greater than in orthography. And here too the usage in this country is more at variance with that of Great Britain. This is due, doubtless, mainly to climate. The more northern climates naturally tend to a more hurried and less open pronunciation, and to throwing the accent upon the first part of the word, and to slurring over the latter part. In this country, and the more as one goes

west or south, there is noticed the tendency to throw the accent more toward the penult, and, as Marsh has noticed, many proper names of two syllables, having the accent on the first syllable in New England, take it on the last at the West and South.

In one direction at least American authors have enriched the language, — in that of political discussion. The state papers of the Revolution and the works of our great statesmen, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, the Adamses, and Webster, have taken up and carried forward to greater completeness the work begun by Milton and Sidney, and others, noted in the political discussions of the seventeenth century on British soil.

The language in both countries owes much to the example and influence of its educated clergymen, not more perhaps from their public addresses and the services of the Sabbath, than from their private personal intercourse among the people. They help to preserve its dignity and purity; they are the conservators of the better elements of the popular diction, while the racier and the more idiomatic are constantly renewed from the dialect of common life.

The written language of the two nationalities, as the inheritor of all the literature of the past, and the embodiment of the utmost variety of thought on all human interests, must remain substantially the same. The great truths which underlie all human progress, the conditions of the world's evangelization, and the triumph of a Christian civilization, have been committed to it. Its extension and the conservation of its powers are thus intimately connected with the progress of culture and of humanity.

ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS.

I. ORIGINAL ENGLISH; ENGLISH PURE OR SIMPLE, (SAXON OR ANGLO-SAXON.)

1. From the Voyage of Ohther in Alfred's Translation of Orosius, Book 1.:— before A. d. 900.

And thær is mid Estum dheaw, thonne thær bidh man dead, that he lidh inne unforbærned mid his magum and freondum monadh, ge hwilum twegen, and tha kyningas and tha odhre heahdhungene men swa micle lencg swa hi maran speda habbadh; hwilum healf gear that hi beodh unforbærned, and licgadh bufan eorthan on hyra husum. And, ealle tha hwile the that lic bidh inne, thær sceal beon gedrync and plega, odh thone dæg the hi hine forbærnadh.

[And there is with Esthonians a custom, when there is one dead, that he lieth within unburnt with his kinsmen and friends a month, yea sometimes (whiles, Scot.) twain, and the kings and the other high-spoken-of men so much (mickle, Scot.) longer as they more wealth (lit. speed) have; sometimes [it is] half a year that they be unburnt, and lie above earth in their houses. And, all the while that the corpse is within, there shall be (it is the custom that there be) drinking and play until the day that they it burn.]

(Craik.)