HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 27

He then formed whole pages of wooden types, but as the common ink sunk and spread, a more glutinous kind of ink was invented; and as the wooden types were found not to be durable, the next object was to form metal ones. A few experiments were attended with success; and in a short time, the art was brought to a high degree of perfection. It was invented in 1444, and introduced in England a few years afterwards; the first printing-press in this country was at Oxford.

HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

IN treating of the progress of language, it was observed that the present diversity of languages, is the result of those changes that necessarily attend the progress of society; that those now spoken in the south of Europe, the Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French, are all closely connected with, or derived from the ancient Latin or Roman language. The Latin is in a great measure derived from the Greek, and the Greek can be traced to Asia, The languages of the North are in a similar manner derived from the Gothic, and the Gothic itself is of

To be thoroughly acquainted with a language, it is not sufficient merely to read and admire it, after it has reached a high state of cultivation. We must have the curiosity to look back upon its ruder years, and to mark the several steps by which it has advanced to maturity. If we wish to know of what elements it is composed, to understand the meaning of its idioms, to distinguish its genuine phrases, or to acquire that skill in it which will enable us to write it correctly, we must make ourselves acquainted with its history. To accomplish this, we must follow as our guide the chain of political events, and mark the successive changes in the speech of the nation, occasioned by its successive revolutions.

The remotest period to which the history of our country can with certainty be traced, is the period of its invasion by Julius Cæsar. At that period the language of its inhabitants was a dialect of the Celtic, a language of very high antiquity, which, though now confined to Wales, to Ireland, to the Highlands of Scotland, and to Brittany in France, was once spoken over the greater part of the west of Europe, particularly in Gaul, the modern France, from which it is generally believed that Britain was first peopled.

Upon the language and customs of the ancient Britons, the invasion of the Romans seems scarcely to have had the influence that might have been expected. The Romans who visited Britain, while it was a Roman province, came not to settle in the country, but to keep it in subjection; not to mingle with the natives, but to check a spirit of insurrection, and to maintain the terror of the Roman name. Accordingly, for as long as the Romans possessed the British isle, the British language suffered little alteration; a few perhaps of the better born and more studious of the British youth, might acquire the Roman tongue, and pay some attention to the Roman literature, but the Celtic remained, as it was before, the language of the people.

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But the Romans having left the island, an event occurred in process of time, which changed to a considerable degree not only its language, but its government, its religion, its laws that event was the arrival of the Saxons, about the middle of the fifth century. These adventurers, casting a covetous eye on the fertile plains of south Britain, quickly relinquished their original design, which was to repel the incursions of the Scots and Picts, and bent the whole force of their arms to conquer the country which they had come to defend. Having in a short time suc

ceeded to their wishes, and driven the now unwarlike Britons into the mountainous district of Wales, with the help of some fresh bodies of adventurers from their own country, they took possession of what is now called England, which for many years they occupied without molestation, speaking their own language and observing their own laws.

The language of the Saxons was a dialect of the Gothic or Teutonic; the language which from an early period obtained among the nations bordering on the Baltic Sea. The origin of that language is now so remote, that it cannot be traced with certainty; yet there are many historical facts that have a tendency to prove, that the Goths were a people of Asia. Odin, the chieftain of a people occupying Georgia, and a great part of the country between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea, dreading subjection to a foreign power, or impelled by a spirit of enterprise, is said to have deserted with his whole tribe, the country of his fathers, and pursuing a north-westerly course, to have sought for liberty and independence in the wilds of Scandinavia. Here he was received with that hospitality and admiration, to which the superior prowess and civilization of himself and his people were entitled. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were subdued by the arms or by the arts of Odin, and he

gradually imparted to the north of Europe his religion, his manners, and his military enthusiasm. Hence it appears that the language spoken by Odin and his followers, must have been a dialect of the languages spoken in Asia, where man, language, and arts originated. To whatever degree of credit this may be entitled, we may safely believe, that those tribes who first ventured to settle to the north of the Danube, brought this language along with them. In a few of its words and modes of flexion, some learned men have pretended to discover in the Gothic a resemblance to the Greek.

Pinkerton, in his work on the "Origin of the Goths," attempts to prove, that though in their progress westward, the Greeks and Goths took different routes, they came originally from the same quarter. But from whatever source this ancient language was derived, it claims our attention on account of the numerous dialects to which it has given birth. It is, as already mentioned, the basis not only of our language, but of most of the languages which prevail in the north of Europe, between which and ours it is easy to discover a close affinity. The languages of England, of Germany, of Denmark, are only so many branches from the same parent stock, which, the wider