Ebook The Breeches Bible

Upwards of half a century has rolled away since Ingram, in his Inaugural Lecture before the University of Oxford, pointed out with force and eloquence, the utility of Anglo Saxon Literature. The success which followed his endeavours to arrest the attention of his countrymen, not to speak of others, which have since also failed, affords but a poor precedent for any further attempts which may be made in the same direction. "That the Anglo Saxon language has a peculiar share of importance and interest; that it is capable of elucidating the principles of grammatical science, and of leading us to a philosophical theory of Language," are propositions, which, though none might care to question, but few are found ready to prove.

But this is not all. Though Anglo Saxon is a language pre-eminently qualified by the antiquity of its origin, and the purity of its descent, to instruct in the theory and first principles of human speech, it presents yet another aspect, which, as regarding not the philologist nor the philosopher, so much as the mass of Englishmen generally, has claims of a still more urgent character. It is the only language which can lead us to an intelligent conception of the English tongue. To state in round terms, the conclusion to which this assertion (if correct) must lead, that we are as a people ignorant of the very language we speak, might appear somewhat distasteful, nor is this the place to argue in defence of such an assertion.