New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-04-21

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Matthew, In three chapters ninety-three per cent;
ard four chapters Of the Epsls to the Romans,
ninety per ceut. The conclusion Of the sixtieth
chapter Of Hume's History of Eog and oas seventy
three per cent Of Anglo Saxon the seventh chapter
Of Gibbon, seventy per cent; the preface TO joan
sons Dictionary, seventy-two per cent; aud two
| letters of Junius seventJ-six per cont. Coming
down TO a more recent period, we fad the proper
ton of Anglo Saxon words in Webster's second
spec CD on FoOts resolution TO be seventY-fve per
cert; 10 Washington IrviDg's Stout Gentleman
eighty five per cent? 10 Macaulsy's Essay on LORD
Bacon, seveDty-fve per cent; in Cbaoning'' Essay
on Milton sevcuty-fve per cent; in the ninth chap
ter of Prescotts Philip H., seventy seven per cent?
in Bancroft description of the Battle OF Banker
Hill. seventy eight per cent; in Byast's Death Of
the Flowers, Dinsty-tvo per cent; and in Longfe-
loa's Miles stapdisb, eli yhty. seven per cent
| 1t appears from these comparisons that the best
writer's of the present day hsbtusly employ, both
in poetry and prose, larger proportion OF Aog'o-
Saxon WORDS than the best writer's OF the last cen
nIy. taking into view the fact that the foreign
words III tho Eugish vocab I'ary have greatly in
creased within the last hundred years. The pro.
pJess of art science, commerce, and industry, has
introduced many thousands of Lstiu, French, aud
other foreign terms Hence in respect to yocabu
lary the writer's of this generation are naturally in
the position in which Milton was artiiciaiy. The
s,ock Of words they profess contains more Latin
than Saxon elements; but the dialect which they
use from preference is IN much the largest proper
ton, home-born English. Had words of Latin and
French etymclog, been proportiOnaly as Numerous
in the time of johnson and of Gib,on, as they now
are, those auth Jrs instead of employing twenty
eight or thirty per ceutof such words would scarce
ly have contented themselves with less than fifty.
The revolutions in the use Of words present an
interesting feature of their history. Ons OF the
most common examples of tho change In our yocab-
ulsry is the conversion of words which were once
refined, elegant and even solemn, into those which
suggests only trivial, vulgar ludicrous thoughts
and images Spencer, for instance, in speaking of
an encounter between two armies or single knights,
often Gays they "et drive" OF, crushed fun drive,
at each other" and bOtn he and later writers, even
to the tins of Dry deu, describe in pathetic passages
l.dy as having her face "blubbsred with tears"
The con mon coloquia phrase, "to let II slide" for
relee sn,ly applyiog which to the American Union
the Governor Of Massachusetts has been severely
criticised, has the authority both of Chaucer a1d
Shakespeare. Young Lord Walter, in the Clerks
Tale, was so devoted to hawking that swell neigh
ali other cares let he slyde;" the dis,onsOate
Doiigene 10 the Frankelelnes Tale was faiu at last
to "lets hire sorwe slides" and Sly in the Tanning
of the Sbrew, "le;s the world slide" Many of the
cunehs coloq1ialisms in the country, which are
supposed to be of American origin, are in fact of
the good old Brit sh family. The Yankees for in
stance are sometimes laughed at for talking of
sigbt OF people, but in the famous old romance, the
prone Morte dAr,hur, the word is used in the same
sense and the high born dame, Juana Berners, lady
prioress of the NuDnery Of Sopwel ia the fifteenth
century, describes large company Of friars as
"bOmynable sight Of mOnkes."
A fruitful cause of change in the significance of
words at different periods is TO be found in the em-
grafton of people into foreign country. When,
for example the European cOonistc frat took pos
.e,son of the Atlsntic coast of America, they had
little knowledge Of the variety Of the material
creation as shown by the later researches in nat
ural history. Hence, on first meeting with the
paots and animals of the new world, they gave
hem the names of the plants and animals which
most nearly resembled them in their own country.
Thus, we have the oak, .the pine, the poplar the
willow, toe FIR the beach, and the ash; the trout,
the perch and the daee; the BEAR the fox, and the
rabbit; the pigeon, the partridge, the robin, and
the sparrow; while the objects designated by the
came rame are generally of different species. and
often bearing but a slight resemblance to each
other.
Several striking illustrations arc presented by
Mir. Marsh of the comparatively recent intro
duction of words, which have already attaised the
position of established fixtures in the language.
The word cOincids, for example, aud It's derivstve
noun coincidence, Can scarcely claim the character
of old settlers, which we should be apt to ascrbe TO
then. Neither Of these words is found in Milton or
Shakespeare. II used ct all, it was by scientific
writers. They belong to the language Of msthe-
MATES, ard were originally applied to points or
lines. They afterward passed into common use, to
denote identity Of opinion or character, or other
points of resemblance, in different individuals, as
well as the occurrence of two events at the same
time. Still they belonged to the language of books
and science rather than to the daily speech of COM
mon lie. The explanation given of the increase of
their popular use, we confess, would strike us as
fsnciful proceeding from any les, eminent authority
than that OF MIR. Marsh. When Jefferson and
Adams both died on the same day. July 4, 1926,
the ,eml-ceDtennal jubilee of the Declaration of
Independence, the event was noticed all over the
word, but more especially in the United States, az