Imatges de pàgina
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THE impressions made by the conquerors who have settled in any particular nation are in few respects more clearly to be traced than by the change they have produced in the language of the natives. This observation may be applied with peculiar propriety to our own country; for after the Saxons had subdued the Britons, they introduced into England their own language, which was a dialect of the Teutonic or Gothic.

From the fragments of the Saxon laws, history, and poetry still extant, we have many proofs to convince us that it was capable of expressing, with a great degree of copiousness and energy, the sentiments of civilized people. For a period of six hundred years no considerable variation took place.

William the Conqueror promoted another change of language, which had been begun by Edward the Confessor, and caused the Norman French to be used, both in his own palace, and in the courts of justice; and it became in a short time current among all the higher orders of his subjects. The constant intercourse which subsisted between France and England for several centuries introduced a very considerable addition of terms.

Such were the grand sources of the English tongue; but the stream has been from time to time augmented by the copious influx of the Latin and other languages.

The same countries which have supplied the English with improvements, have furnished the various terms by which they are denoted. Music, sculpture, and painting borrowed their expressions from Italy; the words used in navigation are taken from the inhabitants of Flanders and Holland; the French have supplied the expressions used in fortification and military affairs. The terms of mathematics and philosophy are borrowed from the Latin and Greek. In the Saxon may be found all words of general use, as well as those which belong to agriculture and the common mechanical arts.

But notwithstanding the English language can boast of so little simplicity as to its origin, yet in its grammatical construction it bears a close resemblance to the most simple language of antiquity. Its words depart less from the original form than those of any other modern tongues. This simplicity of structure renders our language much

easier to a learner than Italian or French, in which the variations of the verbs in particular are very numerous, complex, and difficult to be retained.

The English language is uniform in its composition, and its irregularities are far from being numerous. The distinctions in the genders of nouns are agreeable to the nature of things, and are not applied with that caprice which prevails in many other languages. The order of construction is more easy and simple than that of Latin and Greek: it has no genders of adjectives, nor any gerunds, supines, or variety of conjugations. These peculiarities give it a philosophical character; and as its terms are strong, expressive, and copious, no language seems better calculated to facilitate the intercourse of mankind as a universal medium of communication.

1. What observation may be applied with peculiar propriety to our own country?

2. Of what was the Saxon tongue a dialect?

3. What language was introduced by William I. ?

4. From what countries have we borrowed various terms and expressions used in the arts?-Distinguish them.

5. What are the peculiarities which give the English language a philosophical character ?

LESSON CCCXLVI.-DECEMBER THE TWELFTH.

Captain Thompson.

On this day, in 1813, expired Captain Charles William Thompson.

This amiable and excellent young man was in the first regiment of Guards, and fell in the action off Bidart, when Lord Wellington was about to enter France from Spain with the British troops. His memory has been embalmed by Mrs. Opie, in the following beautiful stanzas: —

"Weep not! he died as heroes die,

The death permitted to the brave!
Mourn not! he lies where soldiers lie,
And valour envies such a grave!
"His was the love of bold emprise,

Of soldiers' hardships, soldiers' fame,
And his the wish by arms to rise,
And gain a proud, a deathless name.
"For this he burn'd the midnight oil,
And pored on lofty deeds untired;
Resolved like Valour's sons to toil,
And be the hero he admired.

CAPTAIN THOMPSON.

"Yet gentler arts, yet softer lore,

Could lure him to their tuneful page, And Dante's dread-inspiring power,

And Petrarch's love his soul engage.

"How sweetly from his accents flow'd,
The Tuscan poet's magic strains!
But vainly Heaven such powers bestow'd,
He fought, he bled, on Gallia's plains.
"No mother's kiss, no sister's tear,

Embalm'd the victim's fatal wound;
No father pray'd beside his bier,
No brother clasp'd his arm around!
"Amidst the cannon's loud alarms,

He fell, as soldiers still must fall,
His bier his toil-worn comrades' arms,
And earth's green turf his funeral pall.

"But who is he in arms array'd,

That bids the verdant turf unclose?
Who dares that dread obscure invade ?
Who breaks the soldier's chill repose?
"A heart he prized, a hand he loved -
The daring deed excuse, impel-
His brother comes, by fondness moved,

To look a brother's last farewell! "And, lo! to meet his speaking eye

That silent eye 's reveal'd to light, And hallow'd by his bursting sigh

The earth that hid it from the sight. "See from his breast his hand removes The treasured gem he joy'd to wear; The holy theft affection loves,

And feeling holds the spoiler dear.

""Tis done-his long last look he takes,
And bids the turf for ever close,
His brother's grave he then forsakes,
To meet, like him, his country's foes.

"But may that power whose high behest
Decreed the one an early grave,
Still guard the other's valiant breast,
And him for anxious kindred save!

"Yet, why lament? to daring souls

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Such patriot deaths of choice belong; That thought Regret's keen pang controls, And thus we frame our votive song.

Weep not; he died as heroes die,

The death permitted to the brave;

Mourn not!-he lies where soldiers lie,
And valour envies such a grave."

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LESSON CCCXLVII.

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The Glaciers.

"So pleased at first, the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky:
Th' eternal snows appear already past,

And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey

The growing labours of the lengthen'd way :

Th' increasing prospect tires our wond'ring eyes;
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise."— POPE.

It was reserved for this age of enterprise to disclose the secret wonders of the Superior Alps. The enormous ridges clothed with a depth of perpetual snow, often crowned with sharp obelisks of granite, styled by the Swiss, horns, or needles; the dreadful chasms of some thousand feet in perpendicular height, over which the dauntless traveller sometimes stands on a shelf of frozen snow; the glaciers, or seas of ice, sometimes exceeding thirty or forty miles in length; the sacred silence of the scenes before unvisited, except by the chamois or goat of the rocks; the clouds, and sometimes the thunder-storm, passing at a great distance below; the extensive prospects which reduce kingdoms as it were to a mass; the pure elasticity of the air, exciting a kind of incorporeal sensation, are all novelties in the history of human adventure.

To enumerate the natural curiosities of Switzerland would be to describe the country. The Alps, the glaciers, the vast precipices, the descending torrents, the sources of the rivers, the beautiful lakes and cataracts, are all natural curiosities of the greatest singularity and most sublime description.

Of late the glaciers have attracted peculiar attention; but those seas of ice, intersected with numerous deep fissures, owing to sudden cracks which resound like thunder, must yield in sublimity to the stupendous summits clothed with ice and snow, the latter often descending in what are called avalanches, or prodigious balls, which, gathering as they roll, sometimes overwhelm travellers, and even villages. Nay, the mountains themselves will sometimes burst, and overwhelm whole towns; as happened in the memorable instance of Pleurs, near Chiavenna, in which thousands perished, and not a vestige of a building left; nor are recent instances, though less tremendous, wholly unknown.

The vast reservoirs of ice and snow give birth to many

JOHN BAPTIST CIPRIANI.

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important rivers, whose sources deeply interest curiosity. As an example, the account which Bourrit gives of that of the Rhone may be selected:" At length we perceived through the trees a mountain of ice as splendid as the sun, and flashing a similar light on the environs. This first aspect of the glacier of the Rhone inspired us with great expectation: a moment afterwards, this enormous mass of ice having disappeared behind thick pines, it soon after met our sight between two vast blocks of rock, which formed a kind of portico. Surprised at the magnificence of this spectacle, and at its admirable contrasts, we beheld it with rapture. At length we reached this beautiful portico, beyond which we were to discover all the glacier. We arrived. At this sight one would suppose one's self in another world, so much is the imagination impressed with the nature and immensity of the objects.

"To form an idea of this superb spectacle, figure in your mind a scaffolding of transparent ice, filling a space of two miles, rising to the clouds, and darting flashes of light like the sun: nor were the several parts less magnificent and surprising. One might see, as it were, the streets and buildings of a city, erected in the form of an amphitheatre, and embellished with pieces of water, cascades, and torrents. The effects were as prodigious as the immensity and the height; the most beautiful azure, the most splendid white, the regular appearance of a thousand pyramids of ice, are more easy to be imagined than described.

"Such is the aspect of the glacier of the Rhone, reared by nature on a plan which she alone can execute: we admire the majestic course of a river without suspecting that that which gives it birth and maintains its waters may be still more majestic and magnificent."

1. To what amazing length do the glaciers sometimes extend? 2. What are the most striking features in a Swiss landscape? 3. To what do the vast reservoirs of ice and snow give rise ? 4. Describe the magical effect of this superb spectacle.

LESSON CCCXLVIII.

DECEMBER THE FOURTEENTH.

John Baptist Cipriani.

On this day, in 1785, expired John Baptish Cipriani, a famous Italian painter, claimed by the English school, from England being so long the theatre of his art.

Mr. Fuseli says, the fertility of his invention, the

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