sages, after being recast in a classic mould by Plato, were engrafted by the first fathers of the Church on the primitive doctrines of Christianity, through which they still exercise a powerful influence over the most civilized nations of the globe. Proceeding westward, we find, as the morn of time expands into day, the Iranic race, founding one of the mightiest monarchies the world ever witnessed, and in conformity with the precepts of Zoroaster's dualistic monotheism, "Make Their altars the high places and the peak Led on by Cyrus and by Cambyses we find these Iranites, or early Persians, subjugating all the neighbouring nations, and finally ruling with uncontrolled dominion from the Indus to the Nile; the Egyptians, who were probably an offshoot from the same parent stem, being, for near two centuries, their tributaries. But while they were thus proceeding in their career of glory, various small tribes of a mixed race, located on the isles and coasts of Greece and Asia Minor, and bound together by the ties of a common language, were essaying every form of self-government which the unshackled spirit of freedom suggests to the mind of man. Thus nerved for heroic deeds, their Hellenic idioms moulded into a classic tongue by the inspired strains of their immortal bards, the metaphysical speculations of their earliest sages and the forensic eloquence of their patriot statesmen, they fearlessly encountered the all-conquering Iranic race, and wrested from its trembling grasp the destinies of the world, on the evermemorable plains of Marathon. The part assigned to this intellectual people in the great drama of life, was to emancipate the human mind from the hierarchial thraldom in which it had so long lingered; to render man conscious of his own dignity, to show what marvels self-government and free inquiry can accomplish, and thus hand down a glorious heritage of imperishable principles for the guidance of future generations. It would be needless to point out how the Hellenic race had, in its turn, to cede the destinies of mankind to a cognate and more energetic, though less intellectual people; and how Roman valour and discipline, in acquiring the dominion of the then known world, diffused among the Celtic nations of western Europe the germs of a civilization grounded on municipal freedom, making them at the same time acquainted, by means of the Latin language, with that Hellenic intellectuality which they had themselves appropriated as the most glorious prize of their conquest. The time at length arrived when, by the inevitable laws of nature, Roman freedom had degenerated into imperial despotism. Humanity was stagnating into a lethargic slumber; the world was in its wane. But the hardy tribes of the Teutonic race then issued from the forests of Germania, and after a long period of desolation and slaughter, regenerated the Romanized nations of Europe, by infusing into them, along with their Teutonic blood, a portion of that spirit of personal independence which appears to be the peculiar characteristic of the Teutonic race. The meridional European nations were thus blended into a mixed Teuto-Romano- Celtic race, speaking various languages derived from Latin, which, as the language of superior intellectual development, had predominated over the unpolished idioms of the barbarous Teutons and Celts. Since this eventful epoch, one or other of the nations belonging either to this mixed race, or to the pure Teutonic race located in Germany, Holland, England and Scandinavia, has swayed, singly or conjointly with a cognate nation, the destinies of mankind. And at the present day we find the Germans arrived at the highest point of intellectuality the human mind has hitherto attained, recasting in a Teutonic mould those ancient systems of Hindostanic and Hellenic philosophy, which have become so intimately inwoven with our whole social existence, that without them, modern civilization would be but a sensual refinement doomed to inevitable decay. And when we turn our attention to a small island on the north western coast of Europe, we behold a nation, formed by the genial blending of Saxonic and Scandinavian tribes, arrived at a height of commercial prosperity and maritime greatness hitherto unparalleled. Ay, 'tis a pardonable vanity to record the fact; England, matchless in the mechanical arts, irresistible in arms, sweeping from the surface of the ocean the fleets of every rival nation that dares dispute her maritime supremacy, is now in possession of that heritage, whose succession we have traced through cognate races, and will, we trust, long retain it by virtue of the law which appears to have regulated its transmission; that it should be held for the time being, by the most energetic tribe of the race to which it had devolved, by the tribe that (physiological and psychological qualities rendered the most adapted to make use of it for the development of humanity. We have thus seen how five cognate races have successively been the rulers, if not always physically, at least intellectually, and the civilizers of mankind, and how the civilization that germinated on the plains of the Ganges some forty centuries ago, has been transmitted westward from race to race, until we now find it in the north-west of Europe, with the Germans in possession of the more intellectual, and the English of the more practical, elements that constitute its essence. But the most singular fact connected with this social metempsychosis is, that the Saxon should now rule with uncontrolled sway over that antique land, whence the heritage he so gloriously holds was originally transmitted to him, and should there impart to his Hindostanic brethren a civilization whose germs had been planted by their common ancestors, at a period when the vast mountain barrier that bounds that luxuriant realm still gleamed with mythic radiancy athwart the gloom of hoar antiquity. The day, however, must necessarily arrive when the Teutonic race, after running its destined career from barbarism to civilization, from civilization to decay, will have, either to cede this heritage to a more primitive and vigorous race, or to be regenerated by that fusion of nations which a century of war and devastation has at different epochs invariably produced. May this day be still far distant; but when German philosophy shall degenerate into Hellenic sophistry, and British refinement into Roman luxury, we may safely conclude that the Teutonic race has reached its point of culmination, and must necessarily fall before the race destined, by the inscrutable designs of an Allwise Providence, to carry on the development of humanity on earth, and render it more fit for a higher intellectuality hereafter. "Sic rerum summa novatur Semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt. 46 SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES. TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. GERMANIC BRANCH.-ALEMANNIC SUB-BRANCH. MESO-GOTHIC, FOURTH CENTURY. 1ATTA unsar, thu ïn himinam, veihnai namo thein; 'qimai thiudinassus theins; 3vairthai vilja theins, sve ïn himina, jah ana airthai; 1hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan gif uns himma daga; jah aflet uns thatei skulans sijaima, svasve jah veis afletam thaim skulam unsaraim; 'jah ni briggais uns ïn fraistubnjai, ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin; Unte theina ïst thiudangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus, ïn aivins.-From Gabelentz and Læbe's edition of Ulphilas, Altenb. and Leipsig, 1836. ALEMANNIC, A.D. 720. ୪ 5 1Fatter unseer, thu pist in himele, wihi namun dinan; 2 chweme rihi din; werde willo din, so in himile, sosa in erdu; proath unseer emezhic kip uns hiutu; oblaz uns sculdi unseero, so wir oblazen uns skuldikem; 'enti ni unsih firletti in khorunka, 7 uzz erlosi unsih fona ubile.-From Adelung's Mithridates, ed. 1809, vol. ii. spec. 124. FRANKIC, NINTH CENTURY. 1Fater unser, thu thar bist in himile, si giheilagot thin namo; queme thin rihhi; si thin uuillo, so her in himile ist, so si her in erdu; unsar brot tagalihhaz gib uns hiutu; 5inti furlaz uns unsara sculdi, so uuir furlazemes unsaren sculdigon; inti ni gileites unsih in costunga, uzouh arlosi unsih fon ubile. - From Schmeller's Evangelii secundum, Matthæum versio Francica, sæculi ix. Stuttg. 1827. GERMAN, THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Fater ynser, tu in Hümele, din Name urde geheiliget; 2din Ricke kome; din Uile gskehe in Erdo alz Hümele; ynser tagolicko Brod kib ynss hiuto; "undto ynsere Sculdo blaze yns, als wij belatzen ynser Sculdige; unde in Corunga nit leitest du unsich, 'nun belose unsich fone Ubele.-From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 130. GERMAN, A.D. 1462. Vatter unser, du do bist in den Himeln, geheyliget werd dein Nam; 3 zuo kum dein Reich; dein Wil der werd, als im Himeln vnd in der Erd; unser teglich Brot gib uns heut; 5 und vergib uns unser Schuld, als und wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern; und für uns nit in Versuchung, sunder erlöss uns von den Ubeln. From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 137, taken from the first printed Bible. GERMAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY. 7 1Unser Vater, der du bist im Himmel, geheiliget werde dein Name; dein Reich komme; dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel, also auch auf Erden; unser tägliches Brodt gieb uns heute; und vergieb uns unsere Schulden wie wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern; "und führe uns nicht in Versuchung sondern erlöse uns von dem Uebel. Denn dein ist das Reich, und die Kraft, und die Herrlichkeit, in Ewigkeit. -From "Das Allgemeine Gebetbuch," Lond. 1845. SAXONIC SUB-BRANCH, OLD SAXON The earliest specimen of this language extant, is a poetical Paraphrase of the Gospels, made in the ninth century; an edition of which has been published by Schmeller from a MS. in the British Museum. The Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer is as follows: Fadar is usa firiho barno. the is an them hohon: himi— larikea. Geuuihid si thin namo uuordo gehuuilico. Cuma thin craftag riki. Uuerda thin uuilleo obar thesa uuerold. al so sama an erdo. so thar uppa ist an them hohon himilrikea. Gef us dago gehuuilikes rad drohtin the godo. thina |