the effects of a colder or warmer climate, in its altered form and pronunciation of the mother tongue. Thus the Greek of the Asiatic colonies exhibits in the works of Herodotus a marked change from that of Homer. The energetic and simple language of the master poet contrasts strangely with the accumulation of short and slender vowels, and the absence o. those slight asperities which impart tone and vigor to a melodious tongue, in the words of the historian. This inferiority of the later language was not less the effect of the enervating influence of a seductive climate, thau of the Oriental luxury and the despotism of new masters, that had broken the mind and enervated the spirit of the Greek colonists. Involuntary removal from one locality to another has frequently produced similar results. The Bushman, whom Linné considered almost an orang-outang, once spoke the noble and still existing language of Bechuana and other Kafre tribes; but the cruelty of the Hottentot drove him far northward, into the inhospitable wilderness of Interior Africa. There, under the influence of a fatal climate and terrible sufferings, the once beautiful idiom has degenerated, and become corrupted to such a degree, that only most careful researches have been able to connect it, once more, with its former associates. The Hottentot himself furnishes another instance of such climatic influences. Of all the peculiarities of his language, none is more striking than the remarkable clacking of the tongue, which Nodier ascribes to an attempt to imitate the roaring of a tiger, called "rauquer" by Buffon, upon the authority of the well-known verse in the Philomela of Albus Ovidius Juventinus:

"Tigrides indomitae raucunt, rugiuntque leones."

THE SUOMI LANGUAGE.

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This Hottentot "click" has, among the more northern tribes, degenerated into a simple hiatus or pause; a hardly perceptible feature in their speech, and yet forming an essential part of their language, indispensable for certain idiomatic expressions.

A most interesting but little known race of Europe furnishes an equally striking proof. The Suomi of Finland, known already to Strabo as Suomi, speak a language which is justly considered the most refined and beautiful of all Tataric idioms. This stock of languages presents, in its numerous branches, the peculiarity, that each degree westward exhibits corresponding improvement, shown in a steadily increasing love of full-sounding forms, a dislike to monosyllables, and the addition of unaccented vowels for the purpose of lengthening and softening harsh sounds. There is one branch, however, of this family which has suffered a peculiarly cruel fate. The Finn, it is supposed, conquered in remote times the Lapp, who claims to have been the original inhabitant of Finland and Esthonia. Even now the Lapp is looked down upon with contempt by the Finn, who proudly says, "The Finn by his word, the ox by his horn." And, certainly, the language of the unfortunate Lapp has not been improved by being driven towards the polar regions, where long exposure to a most inclement climate and extreme cold, combined with the effects of incessant persecution by hostile tribes, have impoverished and utterly disorganized this tongue. It is, in form and essential features, still the same as the Finnish; it still preserves, as a mark of former linguistic beauty, some remarkable ancient forms, like the Dual of Pronouns, but its powers are gone and its numbers are diminished.

CHAPTER XX.

CONQUEST OPERATING ON LANGUAGE.

Languages are not destroyed-The idiom of the conquered race prevails.

THIS example shows us, at the same time, that of all external influences which may affect and alter an idiom, none has apparently greater power than the conquest of a country by a race of different blood and language, followed by a permanent subjugation of the former inhabitants. Yet we know that Cæsar already confessed the inability of the most powerful conqueror to make or unmake a single word; and general experience teaches us that conquerors, so far from imposing their own tongue upon the subjugated nation, have, in almost all cases, been compelled to adopt the language of their victims. At the very time when Mummius sacked Corinth and the glory of Greece passed away, she may be said to have conquered Rome; for the haughty mistress of the world adopted with her philosophy the language also of fallen, humbled Hellas. Thus a language, spoken by a few thousands who dwelt within a small compass, who had neither commerce nor large conquests abroad, and in a climate not over-favorable, mastered the great empire of Rome. Virgil, in his Eclogues, imitated Theocritus, in his Georgics, Hesiod; the Æneid is full of Grecian mythology and

CONQUERORS CONQUERED.

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Homeric images, and the whole episode of Dido is taken from Euripides and Apollonius Rhodius; Horace incorporated in his Odes fragments of Greek lyrics, and the far-famed "vis comica" of Plautus is mainly due to Aristophanes, Menander, and other Greek authors. Rome again kept her hold upon the world, long after the Eternal City had fallen into the hands of despised barbarians, by means of her idiom. The very races that wrested from her enfeebled grasp France, Spain, and finally Italy itself, were conquered by the charms and the power of the Roman language. So the Franks, when they made themselves masters of Gaul, and even changed its name to France. With frank, bold and patriotic minds came these victorious Germans to their second home; a tall, fair and valorous race in the midst of a small, weak and humbled nation. But this same poor remnant of Celtic antiquity, with the foot of the Frank on their neck, overcame their haughty masters, and compelled them to exchange the German of their native land for the CelticRoman of their new subjects.

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CHAPTER XXI.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.

French and Saxon part of English-French in England before the Conquest-Favored by King and Court-Marie de France-French prevailing in England.

THE proud Norman, also, was not more successful, when the fatal day of Hastings placed the British realm in the hands of his race. In vain was his tongue, the Norman-French, spoken from throne, pulpit, and judgment's seat; in vain did he long disdain to learn the language of the enslaved Saxon. For a time the two idioms lived side by side, though in very different conditions; the one, the language of the master, at court and in the castles of the soldiers who had become noble lords and powerful barons: the other, the language of the conquered, spoken only in the lowly hut of the subjugated people. The Norman altered and increased the latter, but he could not extirpate it. To defend his conquest, he took possession of the country, and, master of the soil, he erected fortresses and castles, and attempted to introduce new terms. The universe and the firmament, the planets, comets and meteors, the atmosphere and the seasons, all were impressed with the seal of the conHills became mountains and dales valleys, streams

queror.