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Leader (1850-1860), 20th December 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1212, Untitled Article

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      chemical combination of the two languages ; only a mechanical intermixture to a certain extent . " " X . There are scarcely to be found any words in the English language which it can be supposed to have inherited from the Latin spoken by the Roman colonists who had preceded the Anglo-Saxons in the dominion , and , to a great extent , in the occupation of the country . Almost the only words of Latin origin that had established themselves in the language before the Norman Conquest are a few which it had received from the Roman ecclesiastics , whose visits commenced at the close of the Sixth Century , or from books . "

      " XI . It has not yet been shown that any considerable part either of the regular Anglo-Saxon or of the standard form of the modern English is , in its origin , Scandinavian as distinguished from Teutonic ; though a Scandinavian element appears to be more or less recognizable in some of the provincial dialects . " XII . The foreign element which is found to have mingled to by far the largest extent with the Saxon substance of the English language is that pecular modification of the Latin which grew up in the northern part of what was once the Roman province of Gaul , and which now forms the classical French . " and

      " XIII . In the new circumstances , political social , in which England was placed by the Norman Conquest , the old literary language of the country perished with the peculiar civilization of which it formed a p art , somewhat as did the classical Latin after the overthrow of the Roman Empire ; but more rapidly , in consequence of the important additional disadvantage of having to sustain the rivalry of a new civilization , and of another tongue also beginning to be employed in literature . Ceasing to be read or patronized , it ceased to be written ; and , no longer written , it soon came to be no longer understood . "

      " XIV . There still , however , remained in use as the common or vernacular tongue a species or form of Saxon , differing from the Saxon that was written before the Conquest chiefly by its comparative want or neglect of inflections . " " XV . In reference to the progress of the language , the space from about the middle of the Eleventh to the middle of the Thirteenth Century , or the first two centuries after the Conquest , may be designated the Period of Semi-Saxon . In the popular dialect of this period we have a work of considerable length in verse , the Chronicle of Layamon . "

      " XVI . After the middle of theThirteenth Century , the language assumes the general shape and physiognomy of the English which we now write and speak . It may be called English rough-hewn . The space from about the middle of the Thirteenth to the middle of the ^ Fourteenth Century may be designated the Period of Old or ( better ) Early English . " " XVII . Meanwhile , in the literature of the country , and also in the oral intercourse of the most influential classes of the population , the native language may be said to have been for the First Century after the Norman Conquest completely overborne by the French ; for the Second , to have been in a state of revolt against that foreign tongue ; during the Third , to have been rapidly making head against it and regaining its old supremacy . "

      " XVIII . In the course of the contest between the two lunguages the English had undergone a considerable alteration of its vocabulary by the reception of words from the French , many of which had probably displaced or rendered obsolete equivalent terms of Saxon origin ; so that , by the time it had come to be fully established and recognized , in the latter part of the Fourteenth Century , as the proper literary Ian gunge of the country , it had been transformed from a purely Gothic into a partially Neo-Latin language . ' "XIX . Our modern standard Kn ^ lish , in ho far as

      it is of Saxon , origin , as it is fundamentally and for much the greater part of its substance , appears to have grown out of a dialect formed in the Midland Counties by such an intermixture of the Northern mid Southern dialects a . s rejected the more remarkable peculiarities of both . " »« XX . The space from about the middle of the ; Fourteenth to the middle of the Sixteenth Century may be styled the Period of Middle English ; and that designation may be understood to express not only the position of the ; Period , but the transition oi the language , hi respect both oi its vocabulary and of its grammar , from its earliest and rudest form t . « i the state in u'birh it now exists . To the commencement of this . Period belong the writings of ( Jhnucer , the Homer of our Poetry and the true Father ol English literature . "

      " XXI . We may call the First Century after the Norman Conquest the Infancy of the Kngbsh Language ( hh distinct from Saxon ); the Second its Childhood ; the Third its Boyhood ; the Fourth and ' Fifth its Youth , or Adolescence ; and the time that , has since elapsed its Manhood . Its Infancy and Childhood will thus correspond with what has before been designated the Period of Saxon and Semi-Saxon ; it » Boyhood with that of lOarly Knglish ; its Youth with tliat . of Middle Fuglish ; iis Manhood with that of Modern Kiiglitm . " Not the . leant interesting portion of thitf volume

      will be the Illustrative Specimens of the Language from the earliest period down to the present : these might have been more numerous and extensive with advantage . We shall borrow the strange , wild , eloquent passage quoted from De Quincy , for the delight of all who appreciate beauty of language : — " THE ELDEST AND YOUNGEST OF OUB LA . DIES OP SORROW . " ( FromDe Quincy * s * Suspiria de Profundis . ' —1845 . ) ? 'The eldest of the three is named Mater Lachrymarum , Our Lady of Tears . She it is that night and day raves and moans , calling for vanished faces . She ptood in Eama , when a voice was heard of lamentation—Rachel weeping for her children , and refusing to be comforted . She it was that stood in Bethlehem on the night when Herod ' s sword swept its nurseries of Innocents , and the little feet were stiffened for ever , which , heard at times as they trotted along floors overhead , woke pulses of love in household hearts that were not unmarked in heaven " Her eyes are sweet and subtle , wild and sleepy by turns ; oftentimes rising to the clouds ; oftentimes challenging the heavens . She wears a diadem round her head . And I knew by childish memories that she could go abroad upon the winds , when she heard the sobbing of litanies or the thundering of organs , and when she beheld the mustering of summer clouds . This sister , the elder , it is that carries keys more than Papal at her girdle , which open every cottage and every palace . She , to my knowledge , sat all last summer by the bedside of the blind beggar , him that so often and so gladly I talked with , whose pious daughter , eight years old , with the sunny countenance , resisted the temptations of play and village mirth , to travel all day long on dusty roads with her afflicted father . For this did God send her a great reward . In the spring time of the year , and tvhilst yet her O 2 o ? i spring teas budding , he recalled her to himself . But her blind father mourns for ever over her ; still he dreams at midnight that the little guiding hand is locked within his own ; and still he wakens to a darkness that is now within a second and a deejier darkness . By the power of her keys it is that our Lady of Tears glides a ghostly intruder into the chambers of sleepless men , sleepless women , sleepless children , from Ganges to the Nile , from Nile to Mississippi , And her , because she is the firstborn of her house , and has the wildest empire , let us honour with the title of Madonna " But the third sister , who is also the youngest ! Hush ! whisper , whilst we talk of her ! Her kingdom is not large , or else no flesh should live ; but within that kingdom all power is hers . Her head , turrcted like that of Cybele , rises almost beyond the reach of sight . She droops not ; and her eyes , rising so high , might be hidden by distance . But , being-what they are , they cannot be hidden ; through the treble veil of crape which she wears , the fierce light of a blazing misery , that rests not for matins or for vespers—for noon of day or noon of night—for ebbing or for flowing tide—may be read from the very ground . She is the deiier of God . She also is the mother of lunacies , and the suggestress of suicides . Deep lie the roots of her power ; but narrow is the nation that she rules . F \> r she can approach only those in whom a profound nature has been upheaved by central convulsions ; in whom the heart trembles and the brain rocks under conspiracies of tempest from without and tempest from within . Madonna moves with uncertain steps , fast or slow , but still with tragic grace . Our Lady of Sighs ( tlie second sister ) creeps timidly and stealthily . But this youngest sister moves with incalculable motions , bounding , and with a tiger's leaps . She carries no key : for , though coming rarely amongst men , she storms all doors at which she is permitted to enter at , all . And her name is Mater Tenebrarum—Our Lady of Darkness . "

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      IlJNTOItY OK ' JiUl'J'lHII INDIA . Ancient anil Ahidrrn India . Ky tin ; l : tti ; W . Oookt ; Taylor , 1 . I .. I ) . Itcvisoil and emit inurd to tin ; 1 ' resent . Time . lSy I ' . . 1 . IWuckcnna , Ks < j . Ncc . dikI Kdit . ioii . . lanii'M Madden . To the lasting disgrace , of our Kast India Company , it- will over be noted that they liave . carried the lowest , money-getting ideal into their administration . From India they draw vast sums , yet not ji sixpence i . s devoted to the purpose of encouraging and making known the Literature ol the J'last . While Russia devotes £ I () , ()()() a year to the Hpeciiie purpose of translation , Professor Wilson is forced to publish at . his own cost his translation ol" the Vishnu l ' urana and other works ! What wonder , then , if we are ignorant , of the history and literature of our great colonies ? We ought to be doubly thankful to those who , possessing u knowledge , of the subject , undertake the laborious tusk of reducing it to Nomcl-liing like a systematic and complete form . To those , whose leisure or whose means exclude them from JMiir . History of liritisfi . India , edited by Wilson , we can recommend thin excellent compilation by J ) r .

      more chapters we are brought to the British intercourse with India , extending over two centuries and a half ( 1500—1754 ) , and from that period the story is related more in detail , because more immediately interesting to the public . There is a chapter on " Christianity in India , " but it is extremely meagre , and avoids all the essential points of the question . A good index is added—a thing which greatly increases the value of all books , but is absolutely indispensable in historical works /

      Cooke Taylor which Mr . Mackenna has revised with care , and continued down to 1851 . Dr . Taylor very properly opens his rapid survev df the ancient historjr of India by an account of the Religions and Religious Legends of India , interspersing extracts from the great epic Mahabharat He then briefly sketches the historical events from the first Mahomedan invasion ( a . d . 9 Q ?) to the end of the Afghan dynasty in 1525 . After three

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      CLARA HARRINGTON . Clara Harrington : A Domestic Tale . 3 vols . Colburn ami Co There is a charm in these volumes which smooths the sternness on the brow of Criticism , and , like a winning , coaxing , naughty child , will not let you scold it . In what the charm precisely consists we cannot say . Something , perhaps , of youth with its earnestness , its unmisgiving belief in itself ; something also of impassioned seriousness and eloquence ; something of the womanly tenderness which breaks forth in its accents , "Whatever the

      charm is , enough that it leads you to forget , or pass over without a frown , all the want of probability , reality , and insight which are there . It is written by one whom , on the evidence here presented , we pronounce to be young , ardent , cultivated , inexperienced , and a woman . She loves the poets , makes companions of the books of the hour , and writes with fervor . Her novel gives remarkable promise ; but , as we often say in these columns , guineas are not to be coined without gold , books are not to be written without experience of life . To set forth in plastic creations that which we ourselves have seen , thought , felt ,

      and suffered , is the only legitimate object of writing . If we have nothing to say , let us reread the old novels and be silent ! Advice which , though always given , is never taken . The authoress of Clara Harrington will not take it . She will write more novels . We are persuaded she will . A word , therefore , of critical seriousness may not unfitly be addressed her on the substance of this her first novel . Clara Harrington is a young actress at the liayraarket . Lord Ashford falls in love with her , and tries to make her his mistress . She is naturally

      indignant at the insult , but forgives him because she loves him . Unable to withstand her charms he marries her ; but marries her under the feigned name of Mr . Merton . They live happily for a while . Tempted by the fortune of a Scotch heiress , Lord Ashford takes a Lady Ashford to his bosom ; and thus complicates his existence in a marvellously romantic manner . By a contrivance as transparent as it 8 is commonplace , Clara discoveih j / tll ^ 'llli 44 . O At , 0 JO vw *»»»» - * ' -- | 7 1 ' I 1 is Lord

      at last , that Mr . Merton , her husband , Asliford , that he has deceived her , and that he has another and an avowed , wife , one mariieu after his marriage with her . On ibis discovery she is , of course , brought to the brink ot the frrave ; but afterwards resolves to live in ordei ti . ii the crime of having killed her may not Jail on noi husband . She fakes to painting as a »™ lllio ()(> after having endured considerable brutality at Ins of

      hands ; and he millers the pangs remorse . The story lies there . Now , wo W # the author s to remark its want , not simply of vraisa , it > Umc < , but oi tfrsisi ) of the subject she herself has cliost . ii . ( Jrantintf that Lord Ashlord could have passed undiscovered through all the perils oi «»<¦» » "' j i-uise , in-anthifr the feigned nmiTiage , and tin- sequent incidents all of which belong to >< ; region of Romance in three vols ., not the I <> " ' « ' of Itealify-let us direct her attention to ' , points . In the first place her hero is ji l < w l ' ;^ Knard . The word in energetic , but it ) h approj n- - I'ainily pride may have coerced Lord Ashloi " ^ a secret marriage , but not into mich a . cim , V k is KnilLv ofYet he inot presented as a > < ¦• i |

      . . s is giiill , v ol . i ei , ne j . jiui . » n . > - » .. — - , _ guard ; ' on the contrary , our sympathies a . manded for him , anil h « indulges h . patlu-l J remorse . Moreover hit * subsequent treatme ¦ his victim is that of an ignoble nature . A »< this blackguard Clara sacnhceM hersel wt uuf-elic devotion , bordering on the r ,, lic :.. loiij <•¦ its very extravagance . Here ... ., s we nuss . 1 itin . whl requisite . The utory ho lar ih mxx ^ Y ' >"

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      1212 Q £ t ) t % t&iltX + [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 1212, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1914/page/16/