The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-03-14

STUDIES IN ENGLISH.
Tie youngest of ali European idi-
oms, our great and noble language
has yet spread farthest over the
globe and now rules the world with
ont a rival. More than fifty mil
lions of men, forming the most en-.
terprising race upon earth, speak Il
as their native and only tongue.
The elder cousin, staid, precise and
settled, uses it at home in his count
Ing room the younger, bold and
adventurous, carries It with him as
he roves through the wide world. It
has long since become the great I'm
strnment of European culture, SUI
perseding the Latin. which was once
as general, though used mainly by
the scholar and the churchman, and
the French, the language of courts
and the higher circles of the CONT
nent. Even in the early days Of
Queen Elizabeth, the gentle Daniel,
the Atticus of his age, foresaw its
future greatness and sang:
Who knows whether we may vent
The treasures Of our tongue! To what
strange shores
This gain of our best glory may be sent
Tenrich unknowing nations with our
stores:
What worlds in the yet uniformed Occi-
dent
May come refined with accents that are
ours:''
The prophecy has come true, and
wherever on this wide earth men
may meet, in the merchants busy
marts or on the prsiries and pam.
pas of America, amid the nomsdic
tribes of Asia, or in the mysteri-
GUS heart of Ham, ice-bound in po-
lar regions or becalmed under the
tropics, everywhere they may hear
words familiar to their ears and
dear to their heart. For our good
English has become the language of
the world; cunning with the mer-
chant, and bringing the blessings of
the gospel with the missionary, It
promises soon to spread the benefits
of civilization and the glory of God
over the whole earth.
Surely, then, such a language de-
serves to be well studied, to be thor
oughly known by those whose pre-.
cious birthright il is, and by all who
agree with old Roger Ascham, that
seven as hawke heeth not HE with
one wing, even so q man reacheth
not to excellency with one tongue"
Modern science has done much
to acquaint us with the form and the
nature of our fe'low-men. 1t goes
and counts their inches; 1t weighs
them by the pound, it measures
their skulls and examines their
bumps, it counts the years of their
life and the hours of sickness, 1t
knows how many cubic feet of air
they breathe, and what are their
chances OF marriage or suicide-and
should it not inquire what they tell
each other and how they say It? Is
not language daguerreotyped
thought as we may well call 1t,
more expressive than manners and
customs, law and constitution, his
tory and literature AS there IL no
race among men that possesses
character go sharply defined as the
English, so there is no tongue upon
earth more clearly expressive Of the
nations mind. Boldly and freely
it proclaims him abroad, by its SIM
pie forms, its nervous power, its
deep meaning. 1t never forgets its
own dignity, its noble descent. For
the English has an ancestry unpar-
alIeled in the history of languages.
IL is heir to all the greatness and
all the power of the two idioms that
represent the two ruling races of
christendom,-ihe Romance and the
Germanic. Here alone they are
fused together to form a barmoni-
GUS whole of unsurpassed efficacy,
in striking contrast with the Ro-
man-French, and the Gothic Ger
man. Flowing from bold mixture
of such elements, freeing Itself by
the power of its own mighty cur
rent of incumbrance and superfiui.
tY, adopting with wise discrimina-
ton whatever it finds good and use.
full in other idioms, as historic
events bring it in contact with for
eign nations, It has become WELL
nigh Incompatible, the simplest of
all languages in form, the most spir-
itual in its mode Of expression.
With just pride, therefore, based
On legitimate appreciation of its
great beauty and powers, English
men, and all their descendants, have
ever loved it dearly and used Il
freely. It was their affection fer IL
that made them, centuries ago,
seorn to pray and TO worship their
! Maker in foreign tongue when the
whole of Europe, under the sway Of
Rome, yet held Latin sacred. They
used their yernacular before al their
kindred races for prose writing, and
thus showed their early meataI ma
tuEity, since prose requires knowl-
edge and deep thought, whilst poe
TRY may at least. and often doee,
content itself with the expression Of
feelings. Never did forsign idioml
play the master in England - thsy
/ aid on the continent; never did het
great writers disgrace their names
by subssryient preference for for
eign languages. sasass bsasels.a ~
4 With al Of its astraofions, kswss.
lever; and IN spite Of the rich rswafd