On the Study of Anglo-Saxon 337 
begin at the other end, as our great engineer Brunel did for the Box 
tunnel, so that by magnificent engineering the workmen from the 
two ends met exactly in the middle in a distance of three miles, and 
as was afterwards done in the case of the Mont Cenis tunnel, so 
that the French and Italian workmen shook hands in the middle 
with scarcely the error of a foot in the seven miles. 
Suppose then some archeologist desirous of prosecuting at leisure 
moments this study, which I think very suitable and feasible for 
mature life, or for any age, as a branch of archeology. How is he 
to begin? I answer, not with charters, laws, or poetry, which are 
too hard for a beginner and would be discouraging; nor even with 
general prose; but with the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and I would 
recommend Mr. Thorpe’s neat and handy little edition. These are 
pure easy prose, and the student would have the advantage of com- 
parison with the noble and historic Latin of the Vulgate, from 
which they were translated, and also with our own excellent au- 
thorised translation, as well as with the Greek original. The 
Hamiltonian system may not be good for boys learning Latin and 
Greek at school, but I believe it to be very good for men cultivating 
an acquaintance with their own language in its cradle. 
After the gospels you can go on to the other parts of the Bible 
which are extant in Saxon.! 
You are probably aware that the Bible has an immense literary, 
and, I think I may say, archeological value, independently of the 
doctrines it contains, or which are alleged from it, and that it has 
fulfilled a most important part in forming the English and the 
German languages. As antiquaries we know nothing of the 
religious difficulty. 
- For grammar I would recommend Thorpe’s revised translation of 
the Grammar of Erasmus Rask, the Dane, published by Triibner, 
1 As a step to the gospels may be mentioned ‘*A Book for the Beginner in 
_ Anglo-Saxon,” by Professor Earle, Oxford, 1877; and, for further advancement, 
_ **Grein’s Anglo-Saxon Prose, First Part,’’ Cassel and Gottingen, 1872, contain- 
ing the parts of the Pentateuch, of Joshua, Judges, and Job, extant in Anglo- 
Saxon; ‘‘ Thorpe’s Analecta,” London, Smith, Elder, & Co,, 1846; ‘‘ Anglo- 
axon Reader,” by H. Sweet, M.A., Oxford, 1876. 
2B2 
