Excerpt from A Book for the Beginner in Anglosaxon: Comprising a Short Grammar, Some Selections From the Gospels, and a Parsing Glossary
The study of Anglosaxon is the study of a dead language which stands in Open continuity with the living English of to-day. It offers a means whereby all who own the English language by birthright may on the easiest terms Win a share of those benefits which are more elaborately purchased by the study of Greek and Latin. Truly there is a fine poetic ken which is won by the study of classic languages; but much of this reveals itself spontaneously to the Englishman who will but bestow a look of natural kindness upon the antique glory of his mother tongue. Old language is a sort of poetry. Its poetic light shines out by the foil of modern phrase, and all who vernacularly know the new are qualified to taste the romance that kindles in the Old. But while all English folk have a fair inviting gradient between them and the serener heights of Saxon antiquity, the classical scholar has the high est interest in a study which would tend both to increase his usefulness and also to secure to himself the fuller enjoyment of the fruit of his labours.
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