He found the place too warm for him, To get there had cost him much ado, While the fields were green, and the sky was blue, But to march back again from Moscow. The Russians they stuck close to him And all the others that end in itch; And all the others that end in eff; And all the others that end in off; And Rieffsky, And all the others that end in effsky; And all the others that end in offsky; They were on the left and on the right, Morbleu! Parbleu! When parlez-vous no more would do, And then came on the frost and snow, All on the road from Moscow. The wind and the weather, he found in that hour, For him who, while Europe crouched under his rod, What a horrible journey to Moscow! What then thought the Emperor Nap, Why, I ween he thought it small delight He stole away--I tell you true- 'Tis myself, quoth he, I must mind most; Too cold upon the road was he; Which he must go to, If the Pope say true, If he does not in time look about him; He may have for his Host; He has reckoned too long without him; He wont leave him there alone with his glory; For from thence there is no stealing away, As there was on the road from Moscow.-SOUTHEY. DICTIONARY English is something very different not only from common colloquial English, but even from that of ordinary written composition. Instead of about forty thousand words, there is probably no single author in the language from whose works, however voluminous, so many as ten thousand words could be collected. Of the forty thousand words there are certainly many more than one-half that are only employed, if they are ever employed at all, on the rarest occasions. We should be surprised to find, if we counted them, with how small a number of words we manage to express all that we have to say, either with our lips or with the pen. Our common literary English probably hardly amounts to ten thousand words; our common spoken English hardly to five thousand. SOURCES OF THE LANGUAGE. Some years ago, a gentleman, after carefully examining the folio edition of Johnson's Dictionary, formed the following table of English words derived from other languages: Latin.............6,732 | Swedish............. 34 French...........4,812 Gothic............ Irish and Erse.........2 31 2 .16 Irish and Scottish.....1 The difficulty of applying rules to the pronunciation of our language may be illustrated in two lines, where the combina tion of the letters ough is pronounced in no less than seven viz.: as o, uff, off, up, ow, oo, and ock: different ways, The following attempts to show the sound of ough final are ingenious : Though from rough cough or hiccough free, That man has pain enough Whose wounds through plough, sunk in a slough, 'Tis not an easy task to show How o, u, g, h, sound; since though ITS. His is the genitive (or as we say, possessive) of he, (he's,his,) and it or hit, as it was long written, is the neuter of he, the final t being the sign of the neuter. The introduction of its, as the neuter genitive instead of his, arose from a misconception, similar to that which would have arisen had the Romans introduced illudius as the neuter genitive of ille, instead of illius. Its does not once occur in our authorized version of the Bible, his or her being used instead. Its occurs, I believe, only three times in all Shakspeare; and I doubt whether Milton admitted it into Paradise Lost, although when that was composed, others freely allowed it. French. THAT. The use of the word That in the following examples is strictly in accordance with grammatical rules: The gentleman said, in speaking of the word that, that that that that that lady parsed, was not that that that that gentleman requested her to analyze. Now, that is a word that may often be joined, I SAY. A gentleman who was in the habit of interlarding his discourse with the expression "I say," having been informed by a friend that a certain individual had made some ill-natured remarks upon this peculiarity, took the opportunity of addressing him in the following amusing style of rebuke:-"I say, sir, I hear say you say I say 'I say' at every word I say. Now, sir, although I know I say 'I say' at every word I say, still I say, sir, it is not for you to say I say 'I say' at every word I say." PATH-OLOGY. There once resided in Ayrshire a man who, like Leman, proposed to write an Etymological Dictionary of the English language. Being asked what he understood the word pathology to mean, he answered, with great readiness and confidence, "Why, the art of road-making, to be sure." EXCISE. The following curious document gives the opinion of Lord Mansfield, when Attorney-General, upon Dr. Johnson's definition of the word Excise : CASE. Mr. Samuel Johnson has lately published a book, entitled A Dictionary of the English Language, in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed a history of the Language, and an English grammar. Under the title "Excise" are the following words : EXCISE, n. s. (accijs, Dutch; excisum, Latin,) a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid. |