volumes served as fuel for the Alexandrian baths. They were carried out in huge piles, and burned in bonfires, the scene of savage sport. Hopeless Egypt saw the flames of her conquerors, gleaming far distant, through the darkness of her midnight, brightening her temples, pyramids, and towers, with a splendor more solemn than the deep contrasting shade. In the terrific brilliancy, so soon to pass away, the accumulated wisdom of ages, the pride of human genius, the glory of nations, the reward of heroes, were sinking for ever, in oblivious night.

39. These violent commotions among the nations of the earth, though shocking to the moral sensibilities of our nature, are deeply instructive in the knowledge of our fellow-beings. The astonishing contrasts presented, in various instances, impress the mind most strongly with the force of education and early habit, in forming the charac ters of men. The civilian, the linguist, the philosopher may gain important instruction from this contact of nations, the most opposite in customs and degrees of improvement. The savage conquerors of Italy erected their huts, in sight of Roman palaces unoccupied. The costliest utensils of luxurious refinement they regarded as the playthings of children; and preferred the wooden spoons of their native forests to the table furniture of the Cesars.

But amidst all the revolutions of human affairs, there have been a chosen few, in every age of the world, favored by genius, who have delighted in cultivating the better qualities of our nature, and have cast their intellectual light on the circle around them. Religion, however obscured and perverted, in particular instances, has in its general

course, been the great preserver and promoter of letters among mankind. The volumes deemed sacred have been spared, in the most shocking changes. Copies of these were multiplied; their original forms preserved; and amid all the mutations of worldly fashion, held more sacred for their antiquity. Of this kind were the Zendavesta of the Persians, the Jewish Scriptures and Talmud, the sacred Edda of Scandinavia, and the Gospel of the Messiah to the Christian world. It is particularly in the history and comparison of languages, that the original copies and various translations of these writings are invaluable to mankind.

40. A train of centuries succeeded, called the dark ages, when general ignorance prevailed, and all regard for liberal improvement seemed nearly lost. In this period of bigotry, under all the evils of the prevailing gloom, the monasteries were, in one respect, of vast importance to the cause of learning. They were sanctuaries from the violence of the times, and the fragments which remained from the general commotion were here preserved.

41. Many interesting facts might be adduced from this portion of mental history. A single instance must suffice for the present occasion.

About the year three hundred and seventy-six, christianity was introduced among the Visi-Goths, on the borders of the Euxine Sea. The scriptures were, not long after, translated into their language, by Ulphilas their bishop, a man of uncommon learning and virtue, for the age in which he lived. Nearly a thousand years after, a portion of this work, containing the four Evangelists, was found in the convent of Werden, in Germany It is a most valuable relic of the Teutonic lan

guage, considered the best of ancient tongues, in their pure barbarian form, and the basis of most of the northern tongues of Europe. This work obtained the name of the silver book, from the color of its letters, written on pages of deep black. Copious specimens of this work, as quoted by different European philologists, appear to exhibit uncommon excellence in the structure of the Janguage. We find in these Teutonic terms the radicals of many Saxon words, which are important roots of our modern English derivations.

42. After many convulsions, learning took another direction, and received a new impulse from a quarter least expected. The Saracens, by their conquests in Egypt, Asia, and the empire of the Greeks, became possessed of the most valuable writings which remained, and, under Mostanser, founder of the college of Al Madrasa, Haroun Al Raschid, and a succession of distinguished Caliphs, of the race of Abbas, Bagdad became the great center whence the glimmerings of intellectual light were diffused over a benighted world. Coarse paper made of cotton was in use; and for pens, the calamus reed was employed, as it still is in Syria, Egypt, and the Barbary States.

43. It is a high credit to the sovereigns and savans of Arabia, that in this age of prevailing ignorance and error, great pains was taken to cultivate their language in its purity, and particularly, that their alphabet exhibits better knowledge of the science of elementary sounds, than any other ever formed. The trifling remains of learning in Europe had fled with the monks to the cloisters, its only safe asylum, in the general superstition. Some degree of re-action now took

place. By way of Venice, or through Morocco and Spain, a portion of Arabian science was carried to the west, and with it many of the technical terms which it employed. The elements of Algebra and the figures of Arithmetic, wholly unknown in Europe before, were derived from the same

source.

PART SECOND.

BRIEF SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

44. In ancient Britain and Celtic Gaul, the language of the people was intimately combined with their religion. The Druids were the teachers of both, and were the rulers of the country. Every thing, of binding force over the public mind, issued from the sacred groves. Such was England, when Cesar's legions raised the Roman eagles on its shores. This distinguished scholar, as well as conqueror, has told us that these contiguous nations had the same religion; a similar form of government and laws; and the same general features of character. Their speech was like themselves, rude, energetic, irregular, and little known in writings of any kind.

The Roman dominion in this country, which in some form, lasted more than four hundred years, introduced a change which is still descernible in the old books; but the rude state of these early times, and the great subsequent revolutions, have left us no authentic records of their precise nature or extent.

45. The invasions by the Picts and Scots greatly harassed the inhabitants of South Britain, but

produced no essential change in their language; • because these invasions did not lead to conquest and eventual union of the people; and because, though hostile to each other, their language was nearly the same. It was when the Saxons came to establish themselves in Britain, and from the thrones of their various kings, to wield their dominion, that the whole moral order was changed. Their language of Gothic origin was commingled with the Gaelic; and of the rough strong materials of both, the foundation of our modern English was formed. A portion of those native inhabitants who escaped the slaughter of conquest, disdaining a foreign yoke, retired to the mountains of Wales and of Scotland, where their ancient language and distinguishing features of character may still be plainly traced.

46. The Saxons and original Britons remaining in England, were united under the heptarchy, in all the intercourse of social life, and on the consolidation of that confederacy, became completely one people. There was very little of exterior influ, ence to effect the regular progress in their language. Their acquaintance with the Danes was, like that of the Picts and Scots, chiefly in the clashing of arms, and not in the connexions of domestic life.

47. The reign of Alfred, which immediately succeeded, presents an other great epoch in the literature and language of England. This Prince, under the numerous disadvantages which surrounded him, appears to have been, as to all personal qualities, one of the greatest monarchs that ever wielded a scepter. He wrote several works with his own hand, some of which still exist, and are