I04 TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'oO 



There were signs even in classic times of the coming change. 

 Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Augustus, partly through a 

 liking for the language of the common people, and partly for the 

 sake of distinctness and emphasis, would sometimes use preposi- 

 tions where, according to the accepted syntax, they were not 

 required, and where, from the point of view of style, they produc- 

 ed anything but a graceful effect. A similar preference for 

 prepositions is shown in inscriptions of the same period. Our 

 lyatin grammars tell us that verbs of giving take an accusative 

 and a dative ; but in inscriptions we find such expressions as "Si 

 pecunia ad id templum data erit." The handling of the cases 

 with elegance and accuracy was really beyond the common people. 

 When they were in doubt they played a preposition. The result 

 was that in a popular speech the cases became confused, and pre- 

 positions more and more abounded. It is no wonder, therefore, 

 that in course of time the case endings were dropped and the pre- 

 position held the whole field. 



The I^atin and Greek verbs showed inflection to a much 

 greater extent than the nouns, and the Romance languages of to- 

 day present the same characteristic. The French verb is much 

 more difficult to master than the English. Still, as compared with 

 the lyatin, the French verb has been considerably simplified by the 

 use of the auxiliaries etre and avoir. Auxiliaries are to verbs what 

 prepositions are to nouns : they serve to express the various 

 phases which the fundamental idea of the verb is capable of as- 

 suming; and how far they can go in this direction is conspicuously 

 shown in the English language. In addition to the verbs to have 

 and to be, we use as auxiliaries, shall^ zvill, may and do, and by 

 their united aid get much more work out of our verbs than the 

 Romans, or even the Greeks, could ever get out of theirs. 



As compared with lyatin and Greek the Romance languages, 

 French, Spanish, Italian, etc., are highly analytic, but it is in 

 English that the analytical principle has received its greatest de- 

 velopment. The characteristic of an analytical language is that 

 every thought element in a sentence has its own representative 

 expression. As we utter a sentence in our own tongue — and the 

 same is true in a great measure of the leading literary languages 

 of Europe — we know from moment to moment just where we are, 

 and how much of our intended meaning we have uttered. The 



