248- Travelling Sketches. [SEPT/ 



late myself on having begun the shearing of my flock ; among which, 

 Monsieur le Capitaine, you will perceive that I have the honour of num- 

 bering you." So saying, he exhibited, to our increased wonder, his offi- 

 cial appointment as chaplain to the regiment of guards. <e I am 



aware," he continued, " how prone ignorance or malevolence might be, 

 to misconstrue that vein of pleasantry which, I trust, has been, in the pre- 

 sent instance, not only innocent, but in some degree useful. In taking 

 from choice the sacred profession, J neither forfeited my feelings as a man, 

 nor the genial tendencies of my disposition to social enjoyment. These, 

 ever taught me, and teach me now, to despise cant, and hate hypocrisy. 

 In the ministers of religion these vices are doubly odious, and shall never' 

 esdipe the lash which it may be in my power to apply : but while I make 

 no 'defence for such as resemble the description given of my morose prede- 

 cessor in the chaplaincy, I cannot admit (Heaven forbid!) that the majo- 

 rity of my clerical cotemporaries are fashioned on so deformed a model; 

 nor could I decline the opportunity of attempting to prove by one humble 

 example, that misanthropic gloom, and monkish bigotry, do not necessarily 

 enter into the composition of a French priest ! His animated and eloquent 

 address, of which this is but a faint sketch, drew from the soldier a frank 

 avowal of what he termed " his blundering logic." He shook the young 

 chaplain most cordially by the hand, and assured him that, with such sen- 

 timents, he would find a friend in every man in the regiment." t{ And a 

 friend," added I, " in every country in Europe !" 



I need not add that the captain most punctually paid the penalty of his 

 forfeit, and was amply compensated for the loss of his wager, by the acqui- 

 sition of a friend. On the following morning, after bidding me a cordial 

 adieu, they pursued their route together for the Spanish frontier; and I 

 found myself once more in the solitude of an inn. P. 



UPON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.* 



THERE is a phenomenon in the history of the English people, the exist- 

 ence of which we do not remember to have seen or heard remarked. It is 

 their infinitely closer affinity, under every intellectual point of view, to the 

 French, and perhaps to every Southern people of Europe, than to the 

 Germans, or perhaps to any people of the North ; and this in spite of the 

 physical fact of the German national, original, and even present language, 

 of the English or Anglo-Saxons. Can the dissimilitude of the migratory 

 branch to the features of the parent stock be explained, by supposing that 

 the Saxous, after all, have been the minority in England, and therefore 

 have yielded to the influence of foreigners in the formation of their intel- 

 lectual character ? Did they, at their first arrival in England, imbibe the 

 Gaelic notions of the Britons, whom they subdued, or of the Romans, the 

 previous masters of the Britons ? Were they frenchified by their Norman 

 conquerors, by the continued influence of a Norman dynasty, and by the 

 admixture of Norman blood; or by their constant intercourse, whether in 

 peace or war, with France France, which has been taught to speak and 

 think by Rome, by Italy, and by Greece ? Gr, lastly, is it the active 

 the commercial, the maritime, and the exploratory, life of the Anglo- 



* Treatise upon the Origin of Language. Translated from the German of I. G. Vo\\ 

 Herder. London. 8vo. LongmaH and Co. 1827. 



