Priscian (6th century): the greatest of classical grammarians; the most complete Latin Grammar of antiquity.

INDEX.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A thousand words have thus been traced through the sister languages of Aryan birth—a number certainly adequate to the wants of primitive man, when we remember that of more than 120,000 words which constitute our present vocabulary but 3,000 are in common use. The Old Testament was translated with the help of only 5,642 English words. While Shakespeare’s genius required 21,000 words for its expression, Milton’s epic employs less than half that number.

[2] In common with the Celts, the North American Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, and other ancient nations, cherished a tradition that they had supplanted an original population—the children of the soil—of low intellectual powers, feeders on roots, hole-dwellers, serpent-eaters.

[3] Some regard the Hindoo epics as belonging to a much later period. It is probable that the present versions are essential modifications of the original forms.

[4] The language of the Gypsies, descendants of those Hindoos who fled from the persecutions of Tamerlane, is a corrupted Vedic dialect.

[5] “He is the only master of the world; he fills heaven and earth. He gives life and strength: all the other gods seek for his blessing; death and immortality are but his shadow.

The mountains covered with frost, the ocean with its waves, the vast regions of heaven, proclaim his power.