1 827.] The Toils of a Modern Philologist. 53 



lowed than led the physical progression which has obtained of late years, 

 many European travellers. having apparently expected that greater gratifica- 

 tion or novelty would be found in exploring these less accessible recesses 

 than in pursuing an easy course, *' with the undistinguished heap," down 

 the soft declivities of the south. 



The Teutonic, Gothic, or Scythian, is subdivided into two principal 

 branches, the Scandinavian and Germanic languages. The first is con- 

 sidered the more ancient, and it includes four languages, the Swedish, 

 Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. The Swedish is the most musical of 

 all the Teutonic dialects, being rich in sonorous vowels, and abounding in 

 liquid combinations; and it has also the advantage of possessing a perfect 

 passive verb, without requiring the aid of the auxiliary.* The peculiarity 

 which it also has of incorporating the article into the end of the substantive, 

 would be too trivial to mention, did we not trace in it the origin of the 

 same operation in the Italian, with the article and preposition, and with the 

 pronoun and the verb."}* The Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, may 

 be regarded rather as dialects of the Swedish than as distinct languages, 

 though the first and the last have many original writers, and the Danes in 

 particular may lay claim to productions of considerable merit. I could not 

 succeed in finding any Norwegian books, and I believe it is merely a 

 spoken language. To the Icelandic we owe the Sagas, which have so 

 greatly contributed to illustrate that part of our history which precedes the 

 Norman Conquest. Though the presses of Sweden and Denmark teem 

 with productions, I found more than half of the works which I procured, 

 translations from the German, English, and French ; and as the best pro- 

 ductions of these countries have been written in Latin, I feel persuaded, 

 after having bestowed on these languages considerable study and application, 

 that their acquisition can only be valuable to the etymologist : to him they 

 are indispensably requisite. 



The rising reputation of the productions of Germany invited my most 

 earnest and eager exertions to the mastery of its language. The variety 

 of its grammatical inflections rose up in formidable array, supported by all 

 the unhappy associations of early days of toil at Latin and Greek ; but 

 I was in some degree consoled by finding the syntax comparatively easy. 

 And, after having first become freed from that sense of vagueness and in- 

 distinctness which always attends the commencement of the study of a 

 language, and having subsequently passed to the capability of judging of its 

 merits, I am convinced that it deserves the praise which has been bestowed 

 on it. It must be acknowledged that it is harsh, from the constant occur- 

 rence of the guttural ch, and from its abundance of consonants ; but this 

 defect kicks the beam in the scale of its value, when weighed down by its 

 richness and inexhaustible resources, which are all within itself, and are 

 never borrowed from foreign sources ; and it is, therefore, not only the 

 richest of all European languages, but its treasures are in progress of con- 

 stant increase by those internal powers, which give it faculties that were 

 enjoyed by the Greek language alone to the same extent. It is the only 

 modern language that can translate Homer word for word. Though during 

 a long period but little known to the rest of Europe, it has become the 

 rival of the other principal languages, and, in the number and value of its 



* I love, Jag, alskar. I am loved, Jag alskas. 

 t A youth, yngling. The youth, ynglingen* 



