rous nations, to whom literature is
unknown, are among those transitory things which, by the hand of time, are
irrecoverably buried in oblivion. The fabric of the English language is
undoubtedly of _Saxon_ origin; but what was the particular form of the
language spoken by the _Saxons_, when about the year 450 they entered
Britain, cannot now be accurately known. It was probably a dialect of the
_Gothic_ or _Teutonic_. This _Anglo-Saxon_ dialect, being the nucleus,
received large accessions from other tongues of the north, from the _Norman
French_, and from the more polished languages of _Rome_ and _Greece_, to
form the modern _English_. The speech of our rude and warlike ancestors
thus gradually improved, as Christianity, civilization, and knowledge,
advanced the arts of life in Britain; and, as early as the tenth century,
it became a language capable of expressing all the sentiments of a
civilized people. From the time of _Alfred_, its progress may be traced by
means of writings which remain; but it can scarcely be called _English_, as
I have shown in the Introduction to this work, till about the thirteenth
century. And for two or three centuries later, it was so different from the
modern English, as to be scarcely intelligible at all to the mere English
reader; but, gradually improving by means upon which we need not here
dilate, it at length became what we now find it,--a language copious,
strong, refined, impressive, and capable, if properly used, of a great
degree of beauty and harmony.

SECTION I.--DERIVATION OF THE ARTICLES.

1. For the derivation of our article THE, which he calls "_an adjective_,"
Dr. Webster was satisfied with giving this hint: "Sax. _the_; Dutch,
_de_."--_Amer. Dict._ According to Horne Tooke, this definite article of
ours, is the Saxon _verb_ "THE," imperative, from THEAN, to _take_; and is
nearly equivalent in meaning to _that_ or _those_, because our _that_ is
"the past participle of THEAN," and "means _taken_."--_Diversions of
Purley_, Vol. ii, p. 49. But this is not very satisfactory. Examining
ancient works, we find the word, or something resembling it, or akin to it,
written in various forms, as _se, see, ye, te, de, the, tha_, and others
that cannot be shown by our modern letters; and, tracing it as one article,
or one and the same word, through what we suppose to be the oldest of these
forms, in stead of accounting the forms as signs of different roots, we
should sooner regard it a