before Northern French, when the virtually independent feudatories in the South, whose native tongue it was, were swallowed up by the all-engulfing vortex of Parisian centralization. And the cause that in Italy the popular dialects are more numerous and important than in any other country in Europe, is simply that in no country has there been, in mediæval and modern times, less of political union round any one centre. The sole form of the linguistic centripetal force which modern Italy has ever yet experienced, was the intellectually-centralizing power of Tuscany; and this we accordingly find denoted by the true name of the standard dialect of education and refinement, "La Lingua Toscana." All over the globe the same laws hold good. In the dissolution of the old Scandinavian linguistic unity, Norway, in defiance of all antecedent geographical probability, accompanied Denmark and not Sweden, because her political centre was Copenhagen and not Stockholm. The centripetal force was energized by the Danish spirit of centralization, and, therefore, between these two kingdoms no divergence of language took place. Now, on the other hand, Norway chafes and fumes beneath the once welcome yoke of the Danish language, and casts about for any means, natural or artificial, to work out for herself a form of speech the laws of which shall be enacted in her own metropolis, because she has risen into a self-governing commonwealth, under no foreign control but the merely nominal presidency of the Swedish crown. At present, therefore, in Norway the centrifugal force is restlessly active, because the decentralization with regard to Sweden and Denmark is complete. If again we are asked why, throughout the enormous length and breadth of Madagascar, the language is one, the answer is indicated by the vigorous centralization which the conquering race of the Hovas, who first united the island under one sway, have organized in their capital Antananarivo. Or would we know why in Borneo, hardly a larger island, the languages count, it is said, by hundreds, the reason is found in that total absence of any great centralizing power, which leaves the various tribes practically in anarchical independence. In the eastern half of Europe, we find among the so-called Slavonic family-viz., the Polish, Russian, Servian, Bohemian, &c.-just about the same degree of difference and resemblance as exists among the six descendants of the Latin. The same relation also prevails in that class of which Hebrew is a member; viz., the Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, &c. In Oceania we hit upon an analogous group comprising the languages of New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti, &c.; in Australia the same thing is repeated; and so on in numberless places. And thus, as we survey the globe, we see its surface everywhere dotted with the site of a Babel; until at last we learn that the splitting-up of one language into several is so far from being an isolated or unusual event, that it is as commonly recurrent as any in history. The immense diffusion of Latin, about A.D. 300 or 400, was a remarkable instance of peoples once using more than one language coming to use but one. Populations, speaking the Gaulish, the Cantabrian, the Etruscan, the Oscan, the Umbrian, &c., converged linguistically in the direction of Rome, by forsaking their mother-tongues and taking up hers. And in parts of the same area there have been examples of convergence of a second order since the grand disruption of Latin between the fifth and ninth centuries of our era. Catalonia, possessing a language of Latin descent, converged towards Castile, when she discarded this, the native Catalan, from her law-courts, and from all the serious intercourse of life, and adopted another tongue of similar origin — the standard Castilian of the united Spanish monarchy. Southern France also began to converge towards Paris, when the noble and beautiful Langue d'Oc was displaced from its official and literary throne, and the poor and meagre Langue d'Oil was made to reign in its stead. Perhaps the most astonishing instance of this kind was, when Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Babylonia, Northern Africa, &c., so converged in the matter of language towards Mecca, that, at this moment, an author in Arabic may command a public of eighty millions. Iceland. Was discovered by Norwegians about A.D. 861, and peopled by them in 874. It has belonged to Denmark since 1397. Barbaric Irruption.-From about A.D. 200, the attacks on the Roman empire by the German tribes of Goths, Vandals, Alani, Suevi, and others, continued at intervals till, in the sixth century, after losing province after province, Rome itself finally passed into "barbarian" hands. It had already beer. taken by Alaric, the Visigoth, in 410; by Genseric, the Vandal, who sacked it, in 455; by Odoacer, the Goth, in 476; and by Totila, the Goth, twice, in 546 and 549. Catalan. The language of Catalonia, a province of Spain. Iberian Peninsula. Spain and Portugal. The River Iberus, now the Ebro, separated the Roman territory from the Car thaginian, in the Peninsula, to which it gave its name. Portugal rejected it.-Spain long tried to absorb Portugal, and Philip II. succeeded for a time; but the Portuguese threw off the yoke in 1640, and placed the house of Braganza, which still reigns, on the throne. The Provençal. -The language of Provence, an old province in the south-east of France. Provence at one time included the whole of the south of France in one kingdom. Its name was the continuation of the Roman usage by which the south-eastern part of France, in distinction from the rest of it, was spoken of as "The Province." The Hovas.-The Hovas are of the Malay race, and form part of the great migration which spread itself in past ages from the Malayan Peninsula, east and west, from Savage Island to Madagascar. They are fair-skinned and commonly straight-haired. The other races of the island are the powerful Negroid Sakalavas of the north and west; the feeble Betsileos of the south, and the Betanims and others, partly Arab, of the east. The Gaulish.-The language of ancient Gaul (France). Cantabrian.-The language of northern Spain in Roman days. The Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian.Languages of ancient Italian kingdoms. Langue d'Oc and the Langue d'Oil.-The Visigoths and Burgundians south of the Loire said oc (the German auch) for yes; the Franks and Normans to the north of that river said oil. Hence the names for the languages. The ancient province of Languedoc (Language of Oc) has its name explained by this.-The Langue d'Oc is rich in medieval literature, such as troubadour poetry, romances, &c. The literature of the Langue d' Oil is very meagre. COMPOSITION.-Describe briefly and clearly, in your own words, the changes in European languages within the last 1,500 years. SERMON IN A CHURCHYARD.-Lord Macaulay, 1825. See "Fifth Reader," p. 163. LET pious Damon take his seat, With mincing step, and languid smile, And spread his little jewelled hand, Let the thronged audience press and stare, Admire his doctrines, and his hair, Art thou the jilted dupe of fame ? Dost thou revere, or praise, or trust F Dost thou rate statesmen, heroes, wits, Dost thou beneath the smile or frown Whate'er thy losses or thy gains, The plots and feats of those that press Whether his Kings, and Queens, and Knights, We check, and take; exult, and fret; Our plans extend, our passions rise, How worthless is the victor's prize. Soon fades the spell, soon comes the night: Say will it not be then the same, Whether we played the black or white, Dost thou among these hillocks stray, How many a father's anxious schemes, Here for the living, and the dead, Here learn that all the griefs and joys, Here learn that glory and disgrace, Damon.-A classical name, used here for a clergyman. The use of such classical names in poetry was once very common, but is now given up. What Byron is. The poem was written in 1825. Byron had died at Missolonghi on April 19, 1824, at the age of thirty-six years and three months. Hamiltons.-Miss Elizabeth Gunning, an Irish beauty who, in 1752, married the sixth Duke of Hamilton. Her sister Maria married the sixth Earl of Coventry. Horace Walpole says that the two sisters were spoken of in London society of the day as "the two handsomest women alive." Waldegraves. -Maria, grand-daughter of Sir Robert Walpole, her mother being a milliner's girl. She married the second Earl Waldegrave, and died in 1807. She was a woman of surpassing beauty. Georgiana, the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire, was another of the lovely women of that day. Zeno.-Founder of the sect of Stoics. Born about B.C. 357. Died about B.C. 263. He taught in the painted colonnade (stoa) at Athens, and from this his followers were called Stoics. They were the noblest sect of ancient philosophy. Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor, one of the grandest names of antiquity, was one. |