The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-02

received and welcomed, but the mass Of
the common everyday words will long
remain Saxon. Such words as gard, home,
uolf, gloom, will well represent this element;
such as penalty abstinence, malerolence
dilute, the Latin; theme, SYMBOL arctic,
astral, the Greek.
There are words the very mention of
which will call to mind whole chapters of
history. Thus to every theologian, haptize
calls to mind contest of centuries, all
springing from the etymology of single
word. There are others with histories full
as comprehensive, but less apparent, and
much less unpleasant to the average scholar.
Few, for instance, who use the term arctic
think of our old Aryan ancestors who first
gave the name to the northern constellation,
yet the word has in it thousands Of years
of linguistic history.
Our grammarians tell US that our gram
mar is to teach US how to speak and write
the English language correctly. Can this
be done when it is constantly changing,
and the grammar must change with it
The future of our language is curious
problem. There is n disposition to look
scornfully upon the past, but to deem our
own age changeless. A century or two
from now the world will look back to our
times and laugh to think what odd old
folks we were. Our planet is young yet,
we are just beginning to learn the capacity
of humanity. "We are heirs of all the
ages in the foremost files of time All
the past, or all of it that we can recover
from oblivion is ours as lamp to guide
our feet. All the future too is ours in its
hopes of better things. The day of which
Isaiah spoke, seems dawning, "when the
crooked ways shall be made straight, the
mountains leveled and the valleys filled. y
We-startled, almost oewildered by the
great achievements of our time-scarcely
comprehend what are the possibilities of
the future-that our earth is young yet,
that the eye of faith glancing down the
coming centuries can see possibilities of
which we now hardly dare to dream. One
of these is the hope of a universal language.
This idea now only seems possible to a
reckless enthusiast, but it is a possibility
all the same. The railroad and the tele-
graph are scarcely a generation old, yet
what have they accomplished toward bind
ing the world into unity. Give the world
the same means Of rapid communication
and universal sympathy for ages to come,
and what will be the result? English is
already the most widely diffused of all
languages. Spoken, as it is, by the 40, 900,
600 of the British Isles, and by so, 900, 900
more in America, extending from the ice
bound shores of the Arctic to the tropic
waters of the Gulf. North America is
surely English, and the same is true of the
Pacific world, where in coming centuries,
Australia is destined to play no unimport-
ant part in history. Already, too, the same
tongue has gained firm foothold upon the
soil of both Asia and Africa-is heard alike
upon the shores of Natal and among the
crags of the Himalayas. The idea of a
language all the world can understand,
may seem dream of reckless enthusiasm
to many, but to the one who will quietly
estimate the character of his age it ceases
to be possibility, and becomes a certainty
of the future. We need have no fear that
it will come in our time, but it will be none
the less sure. The clock of history ticks
not seconds, but centuries. In that Ian
guage the tongue we use can not fail to be
an important factor.
A reign of universal peace and concord,
universal language, time,
"When the war drums will throb no longer,
And the battle flags be furled,
In the Parliament of men,
The federation of the world.
When the common sense of most
Will hold fretful realm i'll awe.
And the kindly earth shall slumber
Tapped in universal law"
is grand conception, but not an impossible
one. Our world has struggled long through
the night, but rays Of light can no,o be
seen-full daylight is ahead.
JOHN A. CALHOUN.