“It is a gentleman,” etc.
[2.] For contrary to apparently reasonable assumption, the history of language shows that minute and highly wrought grammatical forms are the signs, or at least the accompaniments, not of advanced civilization and high culture, but of a rude and savage condition of society. The further we penetrate the obscure of antiquity, the more grammar we find. The oldest language known to us, the Sanskrit, is the most complex and elaborate in its grammar; the youngest, English, is, to all intents and purposes, grammarless; and Sanskrit grammar is at least four thousand years old. My readers will now see why it was that I said the minute forms and complicated grammatical relations of the Greek language are not the signs of a high development of language, but were relics of barbarism.—Richard Grant White.
[3.] “Galore,” gā-loreˈ. Plenty, abundance.
SUNDAY READINGS.
[1.] “Fuller,” Thomas. (1608-1661.) An English author and divine. “The style of all his writings is extremely quaint and idiomatic, in short, simple sentences, and singularly free from the pedantry of his times.”—American Cyclopædia.
[2.] “Robert Hall.” (1764-1831.) An English writer and preacher of the Baptist church. When he was eleven years of age his teacher said that he could not keep up with the boy. No man in modern times ranked higher as an orator.
[3.] “Goulburn.” (1818-⸺.) An English clergyman. He was in 1859 head master of the Rugby School, in 1866 was made Dean of Norwich. He was a voluminous and popular writer.
[4.] “Bascom,” Richard H. (1796-1850.) An American clergyman, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. His works comprise sermons, addresses and lectures.