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Page 31
... learned Latin words , or words derived from the Latin . This exhortation rests on a certain amount of truth ; no doubt there were writers of a former age , Samuel Johnson in the last century , Cudworth and Sir Thomas Browne in the ...
... learned Latin words , or words derived from the Latin . This exhortation rests on a certain amount of truth ; no doubt there were writers of a former age , Samuel Johnson in the last century , Cudworth and Sir Thomas Browne in the ...
Page 34
... learned Latin terms as should cause it to forfeit its homely character , and shut up great portions of it from the understanding of plain and unlearned men . There is a remarkable confession to this effect , to the wisdom , in fact ...
... learned Latin terms as should cause it to forfeit its homely character , and shut up great portions of it from the understanding of plain and unlearned men . There is a remarkable confession to this effect , to the wisdom , in fact ...
Page 76
... learned it . " * The limits of their vocabulary are in fact for most men the limits of their knowledge ; and for all of us in a great degree . Of course I do not affirm that it is absolutely impossible to have our mental conceptions ...
... learned it . " * The limits of their vocabulary are in fact for most men the limits of their knowledge ; and for all of us in a great degree . Of course I do not affirm that it is absolutely impossible to have our mental conceptions ...
Page 167
... learned lately to speak of men's antecedents ; ' the phrase is newly come up ; and it is common to say that if we would know what a man really now is , we must know his ' antecedents , ' that is , what he has been in time past . This is ...
... learned lately to speak of men's antecedents ; ' the phrase is newly come up ; and it is common to say that if we would know what a man really now is , we must know his ' antecedents , ' that is , what he has been in time past . This is ...
Page 176
... learned at all ; since whoever knew the sound , would necessa- rily know also the spelling , this being in all cases in perfect conformity with that . The anticipation of this gain rests upon two assumptions which are tacitly taken for ...
... learned at all ; since whoever knew the sound , would necessa- rily know also the spelling , this being in all cases in perfect conformity with that . The anticipation of this gain rests upon two assumptions which are tacitly taken for ...
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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?