Admiration is the foundation of all philosophy; investigation the progress; and ignorance the end.—Montaigne. He who seeks philosophy in divinity, seeks the dead among the living; and he that seeks divinity in philosophy, seeks the living among the dead-Venning. To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die. -Cicero. Philosophy alone makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short of us.-Seneca. Divine Philosophy! by whose pure light, LABOR. Labor is life! The still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth; Labor is glory! The flying cloud lightens; Idle hearts only the dark future frightens; Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune. -Osgood. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. As the best thoughts of the best thinkers are only available through the medium of language, a concise resumé of the origin and growth of the language we speak cannot fail to be of interest to all who realize their indebtedness to language for the blessings of civilization. As shown in our Symposium, No. 453, "Language is the product, the instrument, and the embodiment of thought." A three-fold relation is thus seen to exist between thought and language, and since thought is the very essence of our lives, and is dependent in so many ways upon language, it is not to be wondered at that every thinker reads with eagerness any reliable information concerning the 'Mother-tongue." Reverting, then, to the origin of English, it will be seen by reference to the Symposium, No. 590, that the earliest form of English was a combination of Angle and Saxon, both of which were Dutch dialects of the Low German branch of the Germanic branch of the Teutonic, the Teutonic being one of the seven original branches of the Indo-European and a brother of the Sanscrit, which was the language spoken in India until within three or four centuries before the Christian era. The Goths, (or Teutons), occupied the lower course of the Weichsel (Vistula) in modern Poland and Prussia, between Warsaw and Dantzic. Here they remained as late as 150 A. D., but in the second century, on account of trouble with their Finno-Hunnish neighbors, they went to the northern side of the lower Danube, and the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. Their descendants spread to the west over the district between the Elbe and the Rhine, and here we find them as Saxons, Angles and Jutes, (though the last named were not Admiration is the foundation of all philosophy; investigation the progress; and ignorance the end.-Montaigne. He who seeks philosophy in divinity, seeks the dead among the living; and he that seeks divinity in philosophy, seeks the living among the dead-Venning. To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die. -Cicero. Philosophy alone makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short of us.-Seneca. Divine Philosophy! by whose pure light, LABOR. Labor is life! The still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth ; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth; Labor is glory! The flying cloud lightens ; Only the waving wing changes and brightens ; Idle hearts only the dark future frightens; Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune. -Osgood. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. As the best thoughts of the best thinkers are only available through the medium of language, a concise resumé of the origin and growth of the language we speak cannot fail to be of interest to all who realize their indebtedness to language for the blessings of civilization. As shown in our Symposium, No. 453, "Language is the product, the instrument, and the embodiment of thought." A three-fold relation is thus seen to exist between thought and language, and since thought is the very essence of our lives, and is dependent in so many ways upon language, it is not to be wondered at that every thinker reads with eagerness any reliable information concerning the Mother-tongue.” 66 Reverting, then, to the origin of English, it will be seen by reference to the Symposium, No. 590, that the earliest form of English was a combination of Angle and Saxon, both of which were Dutch dialects of the Low German branch of the Germanic branch of the Teutonic, the Teutonic being one of the seven original branches of the Indo-European and a brother of the Sanscrit, which was the language spoken in India until within three or four centuries before the Christian era. The Goths, (or Teutons), occupied the lower course of the Weichsel (Vistula) in modern Poland and Prussia, between Warsaw and Dantzic. Here they remained as late as 150 A. D., but in the second century, on account of trouble with their Finno-Hunnish neighbors, they went to the northern side of the lower Danube, and the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. Their descendants spread to the west over the district between the Elbe and the Rhine, and here we find them as Saxons, Angles and Jutes, (though the last named were not then known by that name). The Angles live in a district still called Angeln, in the south of Schleswig, and the Jutes were a small tribe in the north of Schleswig. Without following up their further advances over Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Greenland, resulting in the establishment of the Scandinavian family of languages, it is pertinent for us to note the movements of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, occupying the above described territory in the fifth century. Now, a word about Britain, and bear in mind that up to this time, there was no such country as England, for the Angles had not yet occupied Britain. About the year 55 B. C., Cæsar disclosed Britain to the Romans. At that time Britain was occupied by Celts, who also inhabited Gaul (France), a part of Spain, Northern Italy, and part of Central Europe. The languages spoken by the Celts in Britain were Erse (Irish), Welsh, Armorican, Scotch, and Manx. The Romans under Agricola conquered the Celts, but did not drive them away, simply established Roman rule, exacted tribute taxed land, collected customs and exported corn. In other words, the Roman occupation of Britain was only a military occupation, maintained by fortified posts, - Eboricum (York), the central one and in the year 420 A. D., the Roman soldiery was called back to Rome to defend the Imperial City against the northern hordes. Now, it will be seen that the connection of the Romans with the Celts was not such as to affect the language of Britain, for although the Roman soldiers spoke Latin in Britain, there was no intermingling of the races, nor building up of homes; and therefore when the Roman army was recalled, all the Latin that had ever been in Britain went out of it, and the Celts were left to their original possession for about thirty years, until attacked by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from across the North Sea. We have explained the situation concerning Britain during these preceding centuries to show that, although the English language is now greatly enriched by words from many of the Latin languages, the Roman conquest was not the cause of introducing Latin words into English. |