456 GEORGE PEEKINS MARSH. 



and again conducting triumpliantlj the investigation of a subject so 

 abstruse, so vast, and so complex, that it is fair to say he had no rival 

 in the work. These two books of his must long remain the classics in 

 their respective provinces. It is for these reasons that an analysis 

 of them has been attempted iiere. In the second class of subjects, 

 on the other hand, Mr. Marsh was one of many laborers. The study 

 of language, in its several divisions, has been many years enHsting 

 a larger and larger number of able scholars. Moreover, in the rapid 

 progress of modern philology, any man's labors, be they never so 

 eminent, may soon be superseded, wholly or in part. We are very 

 far, however, from intimating that any such destiny has overtaken 

 Mr. Marsh's philological or literary works. They will ever be store- 

 houses of precious materials ; and they are now, in their latest re- 

 visions, so fully abreast of the most recent discoveries, that no earnest 

 student of English philology can afford to neglect them, or is in danger 

 of doing so. All these considerations render it inexpedient to essay 

 here the analysis of any book of Mr. Marsh's in this department ; nor, 

 indeed, could any fair analysis be made that should not transgress the 

 reasonable limits of a notice like this. 



An account of Mr. Marsh and his work would fall far short of 

 completeness, even in form, without some allusion to his remarkable 

 library. No monument can be reared to the memory of a man of 

 letters more fitting than the one he has reared for himself in the 

 collection of books that he gathered about him as the instruments and 

 helpers of his daily tasks. The scholar's loves and purposes are em- 

 bodied in his library as truly as in his published work ; often, perhaps, 

 even more fully. 



This library is described as containing twelve thousand volumes, 

 some miscellaneous and modern, " many rare, valuable, ancient, and 

 curious." The languages of Northern and Central Europe are, of 

 course, largely represented; those of Southern Europe probably no 

 less so. For Mr. Marsh's attention had been fixed, for several years 

 before his death, on the revival, which is even now in progress, of 

 the noble Catalan dialect and of the Provencal, and his intimate 

 study of the Italian language had led him, long before, into the less 

 frequented paths of its literature. One of his cherished plans had 

 been that of a complete English-Italian Dictionary which should ade- 

 quately register the " grammatical relations " of the words in each lan- 

 guage, and should be worthy of both. As he felt his own strength 

 declining, he often tried to persuade younger students to engage in 

 this work. 



