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the mud, out of a tree). 24. Why I like (dislike) study. 25. My sister (brother) entertains. 26. Applying for a position. 27. Why I won (lost) the position. 28. The worst thing I ever did. 29. The birds in our trees. 30. Entertained by a tramp. 31. A whitewashed uncle (aunt). 32. How I directed the postman. 33. The way I lost (recovered) my temper. 34. My part in the play. 35. Picking cherries (apples, berries). 36. Animals (persons) I love. 37. The road to Rome. 38. How we use the old barn. 39. What I need for vacation. 40. What I can do without. 41. Making a kite (table, chair). 42. Finger prints on the window. 43. Sleeping outdoors. 44. An unexpected visitor. 45. Saved by a dog. 46. A dilemma. 47. My long-headed chum. 48. Riding the colt. 49. The organ grinder's monkey. 50. The absent-minded beggar. 51. Teaching my dog tricks. 52. Dancing for a burglar. 53. My scrap book. 54. The best joke on me. 55. Counting the cost. 56. Our new neighbor. 57. Introducing myself to the policeman (watchman). 58. A day with the gypsies. 59. How I got my nickname. 60. What a horse (dog, cow, toad, grasshopper) would say about us. 61. Farm machinery. 62. Life in camp. 63. The advantage (disadvantage) of being tall (short). 64. Cruelty to horses (dogs, cats, toads). 65. Kindness to people (animals). 66. The usefulness of birds (insects). 67. Caged birds (squirrels, lions, animals). 68. Thoughtfulness for people (animals). 69. The rights of dogs (cats, birds, horses, animals, my young brother, my young sister). 70. Writing for the newspapers.

CHAPTER XII

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH

Histories make men wise. - LORD BACON.

The use of history is to give value to the present hour and its duties. EMERSON.

588. Migrations. Nearly all the languages of Europe, and many of those of Asia, are kindred dialects, descended from a common ancestor. This ancient parent speech was in use, possibly five or six thousand years ago, among a pastoral people who seem to have lived in or near the great central plain of Europe and Asia. From time to time, because of the scarcity of food, water, or pasturage, or on account of their love of booty and conquest, they sought new territory. They gradually spread over Europe; they moved to the southeast into Persia and India; and they pushed westward as far as the British Isles and Iceland.

NOTE. We should be careful not to confuse language with race. These people used the same parent speech, but this does not mean that they belonged to the same race. For example, the great musical genius Richard Wagner, born and reared in Germany, was not a Teuton, but a Semite, a Jew.

589. Changes in language. When our linguistic ancestors scattered to these different parts of the world, the climate and other conditions changed their habits of living and their manner of speaking. The different groups of the family grew more and more unlike each other, and after many hundreds of years became separate peoples, each speaking a different form of their old language.

590. Britain; Julius Cæsar. In the years 55 and 54 B.C. the great Roman general Julius Cæsar, who had conquered Gaul, twice invaded Britain, to make it a part of the Roman world. He found that the population consisted of numerous tribes of barbarian people called Celts, who were ruled by chieftains, or kings, and who were almost constantly at war with one another. The domestic life of these people was extremely simple. They raised swine, sheep, goats, and cows, and lived mostly on flesh and milk; some had fields of wheat, oats, and barley. They dressed in the skins of animals, and lived in houses that were nothing but circular huts of clay and thatch. Although Cæsar accomplished but little in Britain, he opened the way for its conquest.

591. Roman conquest of Britain. In the first century of the Christian Era the Romans again invaded Britain, and began to subdue it. Their rule in the island continued nearly four hundred years (A.D. 43-409). They built towns, and constructed great walls, roads, and bridges. They cut down the dense forests, drained the marshes, and extended the fields. They taught the Britons to build better houses, and to adopt better ways of living. They introduced Roman civilization, Roman laws, Roman games, Roman religion, and the Latin language. During their government of the island Christianity also was introduced.

Early in the fifth century the Roman soldiers in Britain were gradually called home to protect Italy from barbarian invasion, and the Romano-British people were left to themselves. Now began a long period of confusion and increasing barbarism, which swept away almost every vestige of Roman civilization. 592. Saxons and Angles. In less than half a century after Roman government in Britain had ceased, the island began to be invaded by marauding hordes from Europe, from the

shores of the North Sea. Some of these adventurers were called Jutes, but most of them were Saxons and Angles. They were related to each other, and spoke different forms of the same language. They took possession of the fertile plains and river valleys in the south and east. The Britons either fled into the mountainous and barren country to the west and the north, or mingled with their conquerors. The language spoken by the foreigners became the language of the country which they occupied.

593. Language of Saxons and Angles. The language of the ancient Saxons and Angles was simple, with short words. The expanding life of the people brought them new experiences and new ideas, and for these new ideas they created new names by uniting words already familiar. For example, their word for sun was woruld-candel (= world-candle); their word for sea was hwal-mere (= whale-lake); and their word for harp was gliw-beam (= singing-tree; gliw is the English glee). See § 599.

594. Literature; England. Soon after their settlement in Britain the Angles began to use the Latin letters to write down their words. Thus they gave a written form to their language, which they called Englisc (that is, English), after their own name, and were able to preserve the poems and songs that had long existed among their people. There were war songs, tales of adventure, stories of fabulous heroes, giants, and monsters, and possibly of gods and goddesses personifying such forces of nature as sea and storm, wind and cloud, springtime and dawn. This written language spread among the neighboring kingdoms of the Saxons, who accepted its name also, and continued to call it Englisc. The name of the language was gradually given to the Saxon people, and England (that is, Engla land) became the name of this part of the country.

595. Romance languages. With the conquests of Rome spoken Latin had been carried into Gaul (now France), Spain, and other Roman provinces in Western Europe, and became the common tongue. Not being spoken distinctly by the different foreign peoples, it gradually changed in pronunciation and form, and developed into French, Spanish, and other modern languages. In France it came to be called Romance, from Romania, the name given in the Middle Ages to the Latinspeaking territory of the old Roman Empire. The term Romance is now commonly applied to all the languages descended from Latin. One of these Romance languages, the French, not only became the source of many English words, but altered the course of development of the English vocabulary (see § 599).

596. Spread of Latin. The recall of the Roman soldiers from Britain (§ 591) did not save Italy and Rome from the rapacity of the barbarians. The Roman Empire in the West crumbled to pieces, and Roman civilization declined and almost came to an end. Before the invasions of the barbarians began, however, Rome had abolished pagan worship in the empire, and in its place had established Christianity. With the downfall of the empire, and the cessation of government, the Christian church gradually gained the ascendancy, and Rome again arose in majesty, not as the capital of the world, but transformed into the capital of Christendom. Through the clergy and the monks the Roman Church subdued and civilized the barbarians, and ruled them for hundreds of years. The monks established themselves in monasteries throughout Western Europe and England. They read and spoke and wrote Latin, the official language of the church; and thus, in this part of the world, Latin came to be the common tongue of the educated classes. Many of the monks were eminent statesmen, scholars, and

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