XV.

Harold

the Second.

1066.

with William's most concentrated, select, and skil- CHA P. fully exerted strength, until night was closing; if the victory was only decided by his casual death, how different would have been the issue, if Harold had met him with the troops which he marched against the Norwegians! But Providence had ordained, that a new dynasty should give new manners, new connections, and new fortunes, to the English nation. Events were therefore so made to follow, that all the talents of Harold, and the force of England, should not avail against the vicissitudes intended. While Harold's fleet watched the ocean, the adverse wind kept William in port. This fleet was dispersed by its stores failing; and at the same time the invasion of the king of Norway compelled Harold to leave his coast unguarded, and to hurry his soldiers to the north of the island. In this critical interval, while Harold was so occupied by land, and before his fleet had got revictualled, the winds became auspicious to William, and he landed in safety. Immediately after this, the Saxon fleet was enabled to sail.

HAROLD had in the mean time conquered the Norwegians; but this very event, which seemed to insure the fate of William, became his safety. It inflated Harold's mind so as to disgust his own soldiery, and to rush to a decisive conflict in contempt of his adversary, before he was prepared to meet him. When the battle had begun, the abilities of Harold, and the bravery of his countrymen, seemed again likely to ruin the hopes of his great competitor. The death of Harold then terminated

any thing more willingly in his life than his coming to meet William. Taylor's Anon. Hist. 191.

VI.

BOOK the contest, while William, who had been in as much danger as Harold, was not penetrated by a single weapon.

Harold

the

Second.

1066.

BUT it was ordained by the Supreme Director of events, that England should no longer remain insulated from the rest of Europe; but, should, for its own benefit and the improvement of mankind, become connected with the affairs of the continent. The Anglo-Saxon dynasty was therefore terminated; and a sovereign, with great continental possessions, was led to the English throne. By the consequences of this revolution, England acquired that interest and established that influence in the transactions and fortunes of its neighbours, which have continued to the present day, with equal advantages to its inhabitants and to Europe.

APPENDIX.

No. 1.

On the Language of the ANGLO-Saxons.

CHAP. I.

On the Structure or Mechanism of the ANGLO-SAXON Language.

To explain the history of any language, is a task pecu- C H A P. liarly difficult at this period of the world, in which we are so very remote from the era of its original con

struction.

WE have, as yet, witnessed no people in the act of forming their language; and cannot, therefore, from experience, demonstrate the simple elements from which a language begins, nor the additional organization which it gradually receives. The languages of highly civilized people, which are those that we are most conversant with, are in a state very unlike their ancient tongues. Many words have been added to them from other languages; many have deviated into meanings very different from their primitive significations; many have been so altered by the changes of pronunciation and orthography, as scarcely to bear any resemblance to their ancient form. The abbreviations of language, which have been usually called its articles, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs, and interjections; the inflections of its verbs, the declensions of its nouns, and the very form of its syntax, have also undergone so many alterations from the caprice of human usage, that it is impossible to discern any thing of the mechanism of a language, but by ascending from its present state to its more ancient form.

THE Anglo-Saxon is one of those ancient languages to which we may successfully refer, in our inquiries how anguage has been constructed.

As we have not had the experience of any people form

I.

I.

CHA P. ing a language, we cannot attain to a knowledge of its mechanism in any other way than by analysing it; by arranging its words into their different classes, and by tracing these to their elementary sources. We shall perhaps be unable to discover the original words with which the language began, but we may hope to trace the progress of its formation, and some of the principles on which that progress has been made. In this inquiry I shall follow the steps of the author of the Diversions of Purley, and build upon his foundations; because I think that his book has presented to us the key to that mechanism which we have so long admired, so fruitlessly examined, and so little understood.

WORDS have been divided into nine classes: the article; the substantive, or noun; the pronoun; the adjective; the verb; the adverb; the preposition; the conjunction; and the interjection.

UNDER these classes all the Saxon words may be arranged, although not with that scientific precision with which the classifications of natural history have been made. Mr. Tooke has asserted, that in all languages there are only two sorts of words necessary for the communication of our thoughts, and therefore only two parts of speech, the noun and the verb, and that the others are the abbreviations of these.

BUT if the noun and the verb be only used, they will serve, not so much to impart our meaning, as to indicate it. These will suffice to express simple substances or facts, and simple motions of nature or man; but will do, by themselves, little else. All the connections, references, distinctions, limitations, applications, contrasts, relations, and refinements of thought and feeling-and therefore most of what a cultivated people wish to express by language, cannot be conveyed without these essential abbreviations-and therefore all nations have been compelled, as occasions occurred, as wants increased, and as thought evolved, to invent or adopt them, till all that were necessary became naturalized in the language.

THAT nouns and verbs are the most essential and primi

I.

tive words of language, and that all others have been formed CHA P. from them, are universal facts, which, after reading the Diversions of Purley, and tracing in other languages the application of the principles there maintained, no enlightened philologist will now deny. But though this is true as to the origin of these parts of speech, it may be questioned whether the names established by conventional use may not be still properly retained, because the words now classed as conjunctions, prepositions, &c., though originally verbs, are not verbs at present, but have been long separated from their verbal parents, and have become distinct parts of our grammatical syntax.

THAT the conjunctions, the prepositions, the adverbs, and the interjections of our language, have been made from our verbs and nouns, Mr. Tooke has satisfactorily shown: and with equal truth he has affirmed, that articles and pronouns have proceeded from the same source. I have pursued his inquiries through the Saxon and other languages, and am satisfied that the same may be affirmed of adjectives. Nouns and verbs are the parents of all the rest of language; and it can be proved in the Anglo-Saxon, as in other tongues, that of these the nouns are the ancient and primitive stock from which all other words have branched and vegetated.

THE Anglo-Saxon adjectives may be first noticed.

THE adjectives, which are or have been participles, have obviously originated from verbs, and they are by no means an inconsiderable number.

ADJECTIVES which have been formed from participles, as aberendlic, bebeodenlic, &c. are referable to the same

source.

BUT the large proportion of adjectives are either nouns used as adjectives', or are nouns with an additional syllable. These additional syllables are or have been meaning words.

LIC is an Anglo-Saxon word, which implies similitude,

1 As lath, evil, also pernicious; leng, length, also long; hize, diligence, also diligent, &c.