

266 STUDY OF SAXON RECOMMENDED. 



than that of any other poet, there are only sixteen Latin 

 words. In four verses of Genesis, which contain about a 

 hundred and thirty words, there are no more than five Latin. 

 The language of familiar intercourse, the terms of jest and 

 pleasantry, the idioms, the proverbs, the particles all these 

 foundations of a language are more decisive proofs of the 

 Saxon origin of ours, than even t)ie great majority of Saxon 

 words in writing, and the still greater majority in speaking.* 



ESTHER. 



But there are a great number of Latin, Greek, and French 

 words in our language. 



MRS. F. 



So there are, in the modern writers; but look at Dryden 

 and Addison, at the writers before the restoration, and you 

 will see the difference. The prophecy of an old writer is 

 come to pass, and "we are now forced to study Latin, in 

 order to understand English." The complaint, therefore, is 

 not new, though the practice complained of is becoming more 

 frequent. "To speak as the common people speak, and to 

 think as the wise think," was the advice of Aristotle; and 

 where can we find more simple and more natural language 

 than in our admirable translation of the Scriptures, which 

 affords us a pure model of genuine English. The most effec- 

 tual method of preserving our language from decay, and pre- 

 venting a total disregard to the Saxon part of it, is to change 

 our present mode of education. -f Let children be early taught 

 the Saxon language, in order the better to enable them to 

 understand their own; for they never can thoroughly arrive 

 at the meaning of a word if they only seek for its derivation 

 in the Latin or French, instead of tracing it to Saxon, its true 

 and original root. 



HENRIETTA. 



Frederick, what is that you have in your hand? 



* Sir James Mackintosh. t Sharp's Letters and Essays. 



