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Page 31
... doubt there were writers of a former age , Samuel Johnson in the last century , Cudworth and Sir Thomas Browne in the century preceding , who gave undue preponderance to the learned , or Latin , portion in our language ; and very much ...
... doubt there were writers of a former age , Samuel Johnson in the last century , Cudworth and Sir Thomas Browne in the century preceding , who gave undue preponderance to the learned , or Latin , portion in our language ; and very much ...
Page 35
... doubt has never dimmed , and controversy never soiled . In the length and breadth of the land there is not a Protest- ant with one spark of religiousness about him , whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible . " * Such are his ...
... doubt has never dimmed , and controversy never soiled . In the length and breadth of the land there is not a Protest- ant with one spark of religiousness about him , whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon Bible . " * Such are his ...
Page 45
... doubt they were here in excess . * At the same time this can be regarded as no condem- nation of their attempt ; it was only by actual expe- rience that it could be proved whether the language wanted those words or not , whether it ...
... doubt they were here in excess . * At the same time this can be regarded as no condem- nation of their attempt ; it was only by actual expe- rience that it could be proved whether the language wanted those words or not , whether it ...
Page 57
... doubt that in twenty years it will be so pronounced by the great body of well educated Englishmen , and that our present pro- nunciation will pass away in the same manner as ' obleege , ' once universal , has past away , and given place ...
... doubt that in twenty years it will be so pronounced by the great body of well educated Englishmen , and that our present pro- nunciation will pass away in the same manner as ' obleege , ' once universal , has past away , and given place ...
Page 68
... doubt that this is the same word ; all the consonants , which are generally the stamina of a word , being the same ; while this early form ' niggot ' makes more plausible their sug- gestion that ' nugget ' is only ' ingot ' disguised ...
... doubt that this is the same word ; all the consonants , which are generally the stamina of a word , being the same ; while this early form ' niggot ' makes more plausible their sug- gestion that ' nugget ' is only ' ingot ' disguised ...
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Common terms and phrases
adjectives adopted altogether Anglo-Saxon Beaumont and Fletcher become Ben Jonson black guard Blackwood's Magazine called century changes character Chaucer Chimæra COMPOSITE LANGUAGE Courier derived Dictionary Douay doubt Dryden earlier early edition employed English language English words etymology example express fact familiar female feminine find place foreign words French words gain German German language grammatical Greek guage illustrate instance Jeremy Taylor Latin language Latin words lecture letters living loss meaning merely Milton modern nation nature never noun number of words observe once original passage perfuga period persons Plutarch poems poet popular possess present pronunciation rathest reader RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH Saxon seeking sense Shakespeare shape sound speak speech spelling spelt Spenser spoken strong præterites suppose survives syllable things tion tongue translation vast number verb Version whole Wiclif Wiclif's Bible write written
Popular passages
Page 106 - Deliver me not over into the will of mine adversaries : for there are false witnesses risen up against me, and such as speak wrong.
Page 34 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Page 65 - Yet it must be allowed to the present age, that the tongue in general is so much refined since Shakspeare's time that many of his words, and more of his phrases, are scarce intelligible. And of those which we understand, some are ungrammatical, others coarse ; and his whole style is so pestered with figurative expressions, that it is as affected as it is obscure.
Page 28 - The first and foremost step to all good works is the dread and fear of the Lord of heaven and earth, which through the Holy Ghost enlighteneth the blindness of our sinful hearts to tread the ways of wisdom, and lead our feet into the land of blessing."* This is not stiffer than the ordinary English of his time.
Page 31 - cocoon,' (to speak by the language applied to silk-worms,) which the poem spins for itself. But, on the other hand, where the motion of the feeling is by and through the ideas, where, (as in religious or meditative poetry — Young's, for instance, or Cowper's,) the pathos creeps and kindles underneath the very tissues of the thinking, there the Latin will predominate ; and so much so that, whilst the flesh, the blood and the muscle, will be often almost exclusively Latin, the articulations only,...
Page 94 - In former times, till about the reign of King Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by adding en; thus, loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it hath quite grown out of use, and that other so generally prevailed, that I dare not presume to set this afoot again ; albeit (to tell you my opinion) 1 am persuaded that the lack hereof, well considered, will be found a great blemish to our tongue.
Page 122 - I might here observe, that the same single letter on many occasions does the office of a whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers.
Page 176 - But errs not Nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep? "No," ('tis replied) "the first Almighty Cause Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws; Th' exceptions few; some change since all began: And what created perfect?