8 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Sturlunga, and the Corpus Poeticum Boreale, containing the whole 
body of the poetic literature of Iceland with English Translation 
and Explanatory Notes. Mr. Yigfusson is now in Copenhagen 
preparing further texts for publication ; and as he has requested 
me to do all I can to encourage the Delegates of the Clarendon 
Press in this work, I shall best fulfil his desires by commending 
him and his work to your sympathy and support. 
The greater number of Anglo-Saxon works being now accessible, 
the question is fairly before us, Is it desirable to substitute Anglo- 
Saxon for Classics as a school subject'? With its somewhat com- 
plicated grammar, its four and in some instances five cases, its full 
declension of adjectives, a dual number in its pronouns, and its 
complete system of syntax, it would undoubtedly supply much of 
that grammatical drill which makes Latin so valuable as a means 
of education, and the want of which makes English so worthless. 
Again, as the parent of modern English, it explains many of its 
apparent irregularities; while an acquaintance with its literature 
would throw light on the modes of thinking of our ancestors, and 
be a valuable auxiliary to the history of those times, besides which 
it would very well stand the third test I have previously laid down, 
as it could be made as good a subject for an examination paper as 
modern German. But in spite of all this it will never, I believe, 
take the place of Latin or Greek ; for first, Anglo-Saxon literature 
as a general rule lacks the charm of originality ; and that exquisite 
sense of beauty, which has made the masterpieces of Greek and 
Latin literature models for all ages, is almost entirely wanting in 
the ruder compositions of our forefathers. But why should I 
detain you by comparing the Anglo-Saxon, or even the more origi- 
nal Icelandic, with the languages of the greatest thinkers on the 
one hand, and the greatest actors on the other, that the world has 
ever seen 1 Shall we substitute Beowulf for the Iliad, or the 
Heimskingla for the Annals of Tacitus 1 Would the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle teach as much of men and manners as the Decades of 
Livy? or can any of the Icelandic Sagas vie in grandeur and 
beauty with the Greek Tragedies? Every impartial judge who 
considers what the Classical languages are in themselves, and their 
intimate relation to English literature in all ages, if not disposed 
to go so far as Matthew Arnold, who seems to make them synony- 
mous with Culture, must at least acknowledge that there can be no 
complete Culture without them. 
