22 



INTRODUCTION. 



39. 



Goethe. 



40. 



Peculiarity 

 of the 

 German 

 Language. 



41. 



Growth in 

 the mean- 

 ings of 

 words. 



and the thought which they express. Of Goethe it 

 may be said that he created to a large extent the 

 language and style of that which is best in the modern 

 literature of his country. No such supreme influence 

 belonging to a single individual can probably be found 

 in any other German, French, or English writer in our 

 century, for reasons which are obvious : but the great 

 French novelists, the German metaphysicians, and the 

 original poetical minds of modern England have en- 

 larged and enriched the vocabulary of their respec- 

 tive languages, and have added a number of useful 

 and novel modes of expression (toumures, Wendungen). 

 Carlyle's influence has been great in introducing novel 

 epithets, borrowed or imported frequently from the 

 German. Matthew Arnold has laboured in a similar 

 direction, his models being, besides Goethe and Heine, 

 mostly French authors, such as Sainte-Beuve and the 

 introspective school. Germany has been less fortunate 

 in extending her vernacular vocabulary : the facility 

 which her language possesses of assimilating foreign words 

 and using them almost without any alteration has done 

 much to complicate German style, destroying its sim- 

 plicity, its graces, the poetical element. It will, however, 

 probably be found that by far the greatest accession to 

 the vocabularies though not to the finer modelling of 

 the modern languages has come from the influence of the 

 sciences on general culture and literature. "Well-known 

 words, long in use, have at the same time through this 

 influence acquired altered or more specific meanings. 



The vaguer word " development " has been supplanted 

 by " evolution." " Differentiation " has a definite philo- 



