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secured in the interval since the Second Edition, and have taken their place in the text. Also many little points of arrangement and proportion have received their due attention. Diminutives are treated more fully. Some remarks upon Adjectives of Vogue, incidentally sprinkled, have been collected into one place. But these improvements never alter the plan, and often they do but fill it out. Not only is the original framework left intact;— it is lifted into higher relief. Such is plainly the effect where the number of verbal examples has been increased. For the consequent expansion of the Word-Index, I have again to record my hearty thanks as twice before.

Some petty changes are for economy of space and compactness of view. When an English word is mated with a remoter word unlabelled, that word is generally of the language which gives note to the Section. Thus, in 'main mægen,' p. 299, the heading indicates that the unlabelled mægen is Saxon. If this is not perfectly carried out, the exceptions are such as to cause no uncertainty. The oft-repeated names, Chaucer, Shakspeare, Spenser, Milton, Tennyson, are frequently indicated by abbreviations which speak for themselves.

In the Verbal Index some further progress has been made in distinguishing classes of words by diversities of type. The Index of Subjects has been considerably enlarged, and I hope it will be found serviceable for occasions of reference. But at the same time I wish to say that the book was cast as a whole, and that as a whole it is commended to the student's attention;-because an adequate notion of the English language is not to be acquired from this or that interesting particular, nor from any number of such; but only from a resolute endeavour to apprehend the language in its living unity, as well in the rich and almost endless variety of its parts and functions, as also in the admirable freedom and simplicity of its action.

MALTBY, July 2, 1879.

HISTORIC SKETCH

OF THE RISE AND FORMATION

OF THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

1. The Philology of a language includes all that is meant by its Grammar, and yet it is at the same time a distinct study. This difference hinges upon the point of view from which the language is contemplated. In grammar the view is confined to the particular language, while in philology the language is considered in regard to its external relations. In grammar we seek rules for the regulation of domestic usage in philology we seek principles to explain the habits of speech. Further, the rules of grammar are justified by reference to the logical sense: the laws of philology have to be established by external comparison and induction. Thus grammar is a local and internal study of language: philology is outward and (in its tendency) universal.

This outward look of philology takes two principal directions. In the first place it will lead us to enquire into the earlier habits of the particular language, that we may be able to trace by what process of development it

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reached its present condition. This is the historical aspect of philology. In the second place, it will lead us to seek further historical knowledge with a view to the comparison of our language with other languages, in order that we`may be able to discover principles of development and structure, and base the framework of our particular language as far as possible upon lines which are common to many languages, with the ultimate aim of seeking that which is universal and essential to all.

The position which our language assumes in the comparative scheme, is remarkable and peculiar. Starting as one of the purest and least mixed of languages, it has come to be the most composite in the world. And the particular greatness of the English language is inseparable from this characteristic. Languages there may be which surpass ours in this or that quality, but there is none which unites in itself so many great qualities, none in which functions so diverse and various harmoniously cooperate, none which displays so full a compass of the powers and faculties of human speech.

The details of this statement will occupy the twelve chapters below:-but first I will endeavour to indicate the historical events which prepared for the English language its remarkable career; and this calls for an Introductory discourse.

§ 1. External Relations.

2. The English is one of the languages of the great IndoEuropean (or Aryan) family, the members of which have been traced across the double continent of Asia and Europe through the Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Gothic, and Keltic languages. In order to illustrate the right of our

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