LITERARY NOTICES. 



703 



Normans — who at various epochs have 

 found their way into the British Islands ; 

 their idioms and forms of religion, their 

 social and political differences, and their 

 relative progress in the arts of civilized 

 life. If we go back to the beginning of 

 this history, we must take notice of the 

 palaeolithic and neolithic men, whose part 

 in the formation of the British people is a 

 totally unknown factor. Still, they have 

 left their marks on the land, and may have 

 contributed more than we know toward 

 shaping its future destiny. The Celts were 

 a factor of more recognized importance, and 

 exerted an influence which is still potent in 

 the character of various populations and 

 in the language. From them are inherited 

 numerous local names ; and, " although the 

 Druids committed nothing to writing, the 

 religion of the British tribes has exercised 

 an important influence upon literature. The 

 mediceval romances, and the legends, which 

 for a long time stood for history, are full 

 of the * fair humanities ' and figures of its 

 bright mythology." The Romans contrib- 

 uted a quota, which must have been very 

 considerable at the time, but the outward 

 effects of which were to a large extent 

 washed out by subsequent revolutions and 

 invasions. So that, while English is full of 

 what has been derived from Roman influ- 

 ences transmitted through factors operating 

 intermediately in later times, it is doubtful 

 whether any Latin word in modern English 

 is traceable to that remote period. The 

 visible building up of the English people 

 and their language begins with the institu- 

 tion of the Saxon dominion. When Charle- 

 magne had been crowned emperor, and was 

 aspiring to revive the ancient Roman Em- 

 pire, it was desirable to avoid complications 

 which might arise from a supposed identity 

 with the continental Saxons who had fallen 

 before the great chief; and the names of 

 English and England were adopted, in part, 

 it may have been, " as more suitable to pro- 

 claim to the world at large a distinct nation- 

 ality for all the inhabitants of England, pos- 

 sibly divided on minor questions, but having 

 nothing in common with the Saxons of con- 

 tinental Europe." The earliest Anglo-Saxon 

 literature originated in the conflict of Chris- 

 tianity with Anglo-Saxon paganism, in which 

 not the heathen practices and ceremonies 



were the most formidable impediments to 

 the progress of the Christian faith, but the 

 kind of heathen poetry still current, by 

 means of which the memory and practice 

 of the ancient rites and ceremonies were 

 kept alive in the songs at wakes and fes- 

 tivals. " It was to counteract this influence 

 that the clergy composed Christian hymns 

 and songs in the national language, which, 

 to be effective, had to conform to the taste 

 of the age, and to be made equal to the best 

 poems then extant and admired by the most 

 intelligent of those who had embraced the 

 new religion." Among these works was the 

 great poem of Caedmon. The Danes left 

 their impress in local names and in changes 

 in pronunciation, but the whole influence 

 of their sojourn, owing to the disorders 

 and divisions which it produced, was detri- 

 mental ; and " it was impossible that in 

 such circumstances the national character 

 should not have become deteriorated, and 

 that the country should not have lagged be- 

 hind in the career of wealth, the arts, of 

 literature, and of every other line of public 

 prosperity and greatness. Accordingly, at 

 the era of the Norman invasion, England 

 was still a country of no account on the po- 

 litical map of Europe." This event, mark- 

 ing a new departure in the career of the 

 English nation, is, with all that relates to 

 it, treated with fullness of detail in its his- 

 torical, linguistic, and literary aspects. The 

 earlier history of the Normans is given. The 

 conquest is related. The growth of the 

 Norman-French language in England was 

 followed, after the separation of Normandy, 

 by its decline. Then occurred the fusion of 

 the Anglo-Norman French and Anglo-Saxon 

 English, the progress of which is carefully 

 recorded. The last chapter in this depart- 

 ment of the work is upon " The English 

 Language and its Vocabulary " — that is, the 

 development of the language as a self-con- 

 tained entity — which is treated in a manner 

 similar to that in which the other subjects 

 are considered. The history is illustrated 

 by collections, in separate chapters, of 

 specimens of Anglo-Norman French and 

 of early English, both arranged chronologi- 

 cally to show the changes that took place 

 consecutively in the two languages during 

 the course of the evolution. It is supple- 

 mented by an appendix treating of " French 



