The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1859-09-15
DERrINY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.


the English language will exercise over the
other languages Of tho world Il prcdom-
nance which our forcfathc,s little drcamt
of. NYhcn Lord l;ac On aimed ut futuriy
in his Writings, lie set himself to write in
Latin: 81 do conceive" he says, "lhat
the Latin volumes, being the universal Ian
ruagc, may last us long Us books !;nl"-
Milton" being content with these islands
ns my world"-contincl himself in his
great works TO the language of these is
lands he scared not to be once named
abroad,' though perhaps lie might have
attained to that" had lc desired il. So
little WAS English literature known in France
two hundred years ago that III certain di.
rections given for the arrangement OF Il Ii
brary all English books are passed over
with the curt observation, "yiX mare trans
mittunt" According to Walter, i, WIS a
crowning achievement Of Cromwcli's vast
mind that our language is spoken even
"undcr the tropc." The language "f lhi-
ture, for in SwiIl's time the literature is
spoken Of ;,s being still confined "io these
two islands, Dr. johnson. about Il cen
tury ago, when applying t" britain a ra<-
sage IN the Somnium il,ionis" of Cicero
-'' o,nn;;y c"i,i terra qua coilur vohis,
augusta vcrticibuS, iatcrihus la;ior parva
Quadam insula cst"-proccr'lcL to apply
to our island the continuation OF the same
passage, forbidding us to hope that It's re
Gown will ever pass tie stream of t;tnYcS
or the cl; Of Caucasus.
But one Of our E.iizalc,l:an poets, the
gentle Daniel, WHO has been spoken OF as
tile Atticus Of his age, sul,nscd that better
things were in store for us. .\lcr lament
ing that the speech Of our scarce -di>c"v
cred isle" is So little known to the rest Of
the world, lie expresses - wish As follows
"Oh that the occnn did not bound our style
Within these strict and narrow limits sos
But that the melody Of "nr s~r", i-ls
Might now be heard to Iihcr, Arnr, an.l Pa;
That they might know how far rhumcs does
ougo
The music of declined Italy,
Despairing Of its gaining ground in
AaIy, he foJesecs its triumph i'll america
"Who knows whittier we may vent
The treasure Sf our tongue: To what srang"
This gain of our best glurv may be sent,
y enrich unknowing nutions with our stores:
What worlds i'll the We, Uniformed Occlcnt
May refined with acc. nls tina, are our. =
'EIie poets aspirations are now fulfilled
Soon after hc wrote this passayc the Eng
Iish language WAS planted On Il narrow
slip Of land OH the western continent; il
grew apace, and its prospects are now
the most splendid that Tie world has ever
seen. The entire number ct persons who
speak certain Of the languages Of Northern
Europc--languagcs of considerable literary
rcputc--is not equal to the number sim
ply added every ycar ly the increase Of
population, to those who speak the Eng.
lsll language in England and America
alone. There arc persons now living who
wM in all probability see it the YER
nacular language Of one hundlci and
fifty millions of the carlh's civilized po)--
ulation. Although French is spoken by
considerable proportion Of the popua :
ton i'll CaEada, and although in the United
States there is large and ,olcrabIy COM
pact body Of Germansreaking Germans,
these languages must gradually melt away,
as the Welsh and the Gaelic have melt
ed away before the English in our own
island, The time will speedily lie here
when a gigantic community in Ame'ic;.
--besides rising and important colonies in
Africa and ralia--will speak the same
Language, and that the language Of Il na-
ton holding high position among the
empires OF Europe. When this time shall
have arrived, the otl,cr languages Of Eu-
rope will be reduced to tic same relative
position with regard to the predominant
,aDguaye rs that III which Tie basque stands
to the Spanish or the Finnish to the Rus.
sian. For such prcdoninancc the English
language possesses admirable Iuati ,;ons
standing, as it does, midway between the
Gtrmnnic and scandinavian branches OF
tile ancient Tcutonic, and also uniting the
Tcutonic with the i;omanic in a manner to
which no other language has any prc,cn.
sion. A prize was gwen III 7oe hy .hy
Academy ut Berlin for g.. essay OF, the
comparison of fourteen ancient and mod
ern languages Of Europe, and in tl,a, essay
the author, Jeniscl, assigns the palm oi
general excellence to the English; it has
also been allowed by other German critics
that in regard to the qualifications which
it possesses for becoming general utter
prefer Of the literature Of Europe, not even
their own language can conctc with it,