THE LATIN ELEMENT.

§ 25. Urged on by curiosity and ambition, Julius Cæsar invaded Britain in the year 55 B.C. Though the Britons met him even in the waves with a determined resistance, yet their impetuous valor could not withstand Roman discipline. And in subsequent years, though they fought for independence under the brave Caractacus and the heroine Boadicea, the Roman legions still triumphed. Agricola completed the conquest of the island. Pursuing a liberal policy, he seems to have directed all the energies of his mind to civilize and improve the fierce natives. He assisted them to build temples; he inspired them with a love of education; and he persuaded some of their chiefs to study letters. Roman dress, and language, and literature, spread among the natives. "Roman law and magistracies were every where established, and British lawyers as well as British ladies have obtained the panegyrics of the Roman classics." As the Latin language was spoken by those who presided over the civil and military affairs of the country, and by a portion of those who were active in spreading the Christian religion in the island, as Roman colonies were established in different places, and as there was constantly more or less intercourse between Rome and England, we can easily believe that the language of the ancient Britons was somewhat modified by the introduction of Latin words and phrases. Only a few of these remain, and these are somewhat changed. Thus strata is changed to street, colonia into coln, as in Lincoln=Lindi colonia; castra into chester and cester, as Winchester, Gloucester, which latter was originally written Gleva Castra.

It is remarkable that Roman Britain did not produce a single literary name, nor a single work from which we might form an estimate as to what degree the Latin language was used. The Latin element was, for the most part, not introduced during the five hundred years the Romans had possession of the island, but afterward, by the teachers of religion, and by the teachers and admirers of the Roman classics.

In the Second Period, namely, under the Christianized

Saxon sovereigns, many words were introduced relating chiefly to ecclesiastical matters, just as Latin of the Celtic period related to military affairs. Mynster, a minster, Monasterium; portic, a porch, porticus; cluster, a cloister, claustrum; munuc, a monk, monachus; bisceop, a bishop, episcopus; sanct, a saint, sanctus; profost, a provost, proposi tus; pistel, an epistle, epistola. The following are names of foreign plants and animals: Camell, a camel, camelus; ylp, elephant, elephas; fic-beam, fig-tree, ficus; pipor, pepper, piper; purpur, purple, purpura; pumic-stan, pumice stone, pumex.

The Latin introduced during the time the Romans were masters of the island, may be called the Latin of the First Period; the Latin introduced during the time from the coming of the Anglo-Saxons to the Conquest by William, may be called the Latin of the Second Period; and the Latin introduced between the Conquest and reign of Henry the Eighth, or the revival of learning, may be called the Latin of the Third Period. This last was of two sorts, direct and indirect. Direct, as when in ecclesiastical law, words introduced at once from the Latin; Indirect, when, as in the common law, and in the language of the Constitution, Latin words were introduced through the medium of the AngloNorman. Since the time of Henry the Eighth, large additions have been made to the English from the Latin language, especially of terms used in the sciences.

THE ANGLO-SAXON ELEMENT.

§ 26. After holding possession of Britain nearly five hundred years from the time Cæsar first landed on its shores, the Romans, pressed by enemies from without, and torn by intestine divisions, found themselves obliged to retire from the island. The Britons, left to enjoy their liberty, found themselves unfitted, by their long subjugation to the Romans, to defend themselves against the Picts and the Scots, who poured in upon them from the northern part of the island. Being thus hard pressed, Vortigern, the most powerful of the British kings, in A.D. 449 invited Hengist and Horsa, with their followers, to fight his battles.

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"Then, sad relief, from the bleak coast that hears The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came." Saxon, a term derived from a short, crooked sword, called seax, carried under their loose garments by the warriors of the nation, was a general name given to the adventurers led by those chieftains, though they belonged to three tribes, namely, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. These belonged to the Gothic race, which composed the second great stream issuing from Asia, and spreading itself over the northern and western part of Europe. The branch to which they belonged was the Teutonic or Germanic, which occupied the part of Europe now occupied by the Germans, and the southern part of the Danish nation.

The Saxons were a fierce race of pirates, reckless of life, who traversed the German Ocean in osier boats, covered with skins sewed together, in pursuit of plunder, and not of fame. Their persons were of the largest size, their eyes blue, their complexion fair, and their hair almost uniformly of a light color. Though the love of gain was their ruling passion, still they sometimes showed a high regard for honor, and a pride of mind that could not endure disgrace. Twenty-nine Saxons strangled themselves, to avoid being brought into a theater for a gladiatorial show. Their arms were long lances, short crooked swords or knives, called seaxes, with small shields, suspended by chains, and long iron sledge hammers. They were a race of idolaters, who sacrificed to their favorite idols the captives they took in battle, and the cowardly of their own army. The abstract name of the Deity was God. But there were other principal deities of the Northmen. ODIN, whom they called the All. Father; FREYA, his wife; and their son THOR. Of these, the Anglo-Saxons, like the Danes, paid the highest honor to Odin; the Norwegians and Icelanders to Thor; and the Swedes to Freya. Alphabetical characters were used by the Gothic nations on the Baltic before they received Christianity, and the origin of them is ascribed to Odin. As the profession of arms was generally aspired to by the youth of the Teutonic race, their education from the first had a bearing upon their success in

that profession. Aristotle says that the "Germans used to take their new-born children and dive with them into rivers, as well to make a trial of their strength as to accustom them to hardness; and that they laid their children among their armor in the camp, it being sport to the infants to see the glittering of the armor. They taught their little boys to manage the pike, having small javelins made for the purpose."

Thus qualified to fight the battles of the Britons against their enemies, the Picts and Scots, they came, few in num bers, at first, as mercenaries into the army of Vortigern, until, their numbers increasing, they turned their arms against the very nation they came to protect. Afterward Ella and Cerdic came with the Saxons proper, then Ida with the Angles. To these for many years the Britons offered a brave but a vain resistance, under three kings; under Elrian, Owen, and Prince Arthur, with his knights of the round table, celebrated by the British bards.

To escape from the exterminating sword of their enemies, the natives, as soon as they saw that resistance was fruitless, fled to the hills and forests. Multitudes found a secure asylum among the mountains which cover the west part of the island. Others, under the conduct of their priests and chieftains, abandoned, it is supposed, their native country altogether, and, crossing the ocean, seized the desolate lands on the western extremity of Armorica, subdued the neighboring cities, and gave the tract the appellation of the parent country. It is still known by the name of Bretagne. But the work of devastation was at last checked by views of personal interest. The Britons were at last spared, because their labor was found necessary to the cultivation of the soil. Without distinction of rank, or sex, or profession, they were divided, together with the land, among the conquerors. Being thus diffused among the Anglo-Saxons, they introduced the Celtic element into the body of the English language.

The JUTES, in A.D. 449, came from Jutland, in Denmark, and occupied small possessions in Kent and the Isle of Wight. The SAXONS, in A.D. 491, came from a wide-spread territory south of Denmark, and obtained possession of the western and southern parts. The ANGLES came in A.D. 527, from An

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glen in Sleswick, in the south part of Denmark, and occupied the east and north part of England, and the south part of Scotland. There were one Jute, three Saxon, and four Angle; in all, eight kingdoms, though they went by the name of the Saxon Heptarchy. The Angles very naturally {denominated that part of the country they inhabited Angleland, or the land of the Angles, which was afterward contracted to England. It is a remarkable fact that the English of the present day are called by the Britons in Wales, and by the Highlanders in Scotland, in Cambrian and Gaelic, not Angles or English, but Saxons.

After the entire subjugation of the Britons, the West Saxons grew in influence and territory until A.D. 827, when Egbert, king of Wessex, defeated and made tributary all the other Saxon kings. The most distinguished of the West Saxon kings was Alfred, who, to remarkable prowess in war, united a taste for letters. He not only drew learned men from other parts of Europe into England, but by his own literary efforts, especially in translating Bede's History, and Boethius on the Consolations of Philosophy, and Orosius's History of the World, he gave so much prominence to the West Saxon language as to constitute it the cultivated language of the Anglo-Saxons.

Thus we can understand how it is that the Anglo-Saxon enters so largely into the English; that it is less an element than it is the Mother-tongue, upon which a few words have been ingrafted from other languages. To this point I shall

return.

It is remarkable that the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, and a fourth tribe, namely, the Frisians, lay between the two great branches of the Gothic, the Scandinavian on the north, and the Teutonic on the south. The Jutes were the most Danish, and the Frisians were the most Dutch. That they understood each other's language there can be no doubt. Probably, however, they differed so much that the provincial differences now existing in England may be owing to original difference of dialect in these tribes. The Frisians, now residing in Friesland, speak a language strongly resembling the Anglo-Saxon. Probably but few of their tribe came to En