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a good while before the rest of the congregation. They punctually obeyed my directions; but when we were to assemble in the morning at breakfast, down came my wife and daughters, dressed out all in their former splendor, their hair plastered up with pomatum, their faces patched to taste, their trains bundled up in a heap behind, and rustling at every motion. I could not help smiling at their vanity, particularly that of my wife, from whom I expected more discretion. In this exigence, therefore, my only resource was to order my son, with an important air, to call our coach. The girls were amazed at the command; but I repeated it with more solemnity than before. "Surely, my dear, you jest,” cried my wife, we can walk it perfectly well: we want no coach to carry us now.” "You mistake, child," returned I, "we do want a coach; for if we walk to church in this trim, the very children in the parish will hoot after us.""Indeed," replied my wife, "I always imagined that my Charles was fond of seeing his children neat and handsome about him."—"You may be as neat as you please," interrupted I, " and I shall love you the better for it; but all this is not neatness, but frippery. These rufflings, and pinkings, and patchings will only make us hated by all the wives of all our neighbors. No, my children," continued I more gravely, "those gowns may be altered into something of a plainer cut; for finery is very unbecoming in us, who want the means of decency. I do not know whether such flouncing and shredding is becoming even in the rich, if we consider, upon a moderate calculation, that the nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the trimmings of the vain."

This remonstrance had the proper effect; they went with great composure, that very instant, to change their dress; and the next day I had the satisfaction of finding my daughters, at their own request, employed in cutting up their trains into Sunday waistcoats for Dick and Bill, the two little ones; and what was still more satisfactory, the gowns seemed improved by this curtailing.

APPENDIX.

I.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE.

Origin of the English People. Notice, in the first place, that in the Table of Aryan Languages,' English appears as a member of the Teutonic, or Germanic, group. For the origin of the English people and language, we must look far away from England itself to that part of Europe now comprising the kingdom of Denmark and the Prussian province of SleswickHolstein. Here, until the middle of the fifth century, lived three tribes of the Teutonic family, - the Jutes, the Angles (or English), and the Saxons. There was undoubtedly a difference in dialect among these tribes; but they all had substantially the same language.

Religion and Habits. The religion of the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons was that of the other tribes of the Teutonic group. Their chief god was Woden, the war god. Our names for the days of the week still preserve to us the names of several of their gods and goddesses. Wednesday is Woden's day; Thursday preserves the name of Thor, the god of thunder; Friday, the name of the goddess Frigu. Tacitus has

1 See p. 22.

given us an interesting description of the Saxons, or English, before they left their native soil. They were a nation of farmers and herdsmen; but the barrenness of their country drove them to the sea, and they became the terror of the tribes about them. A Roman poet writes of them, that they were fierce beyond all other foes; that the sea was their home, and the storm their friend. He calls them sea wolves, for they lived upon the pillage of the world. But let us see how the language of these Angles and Saxons became the language of England.

Celtic Britain and Roman Conquest. When England was first made known to the civilized world of Rome, it was inhabited by a tribe of the Celtic race called Britons, and was known as Britain. Julius Cæsar landed upon the island in 55 B.C., but not until nearly a century later was the conquest completed. A Roman general, Agricola, carried the Roman occupation as far north as the Clyde and the Firth of Forth. A military government was established, and Britain became a Roman province. A network of well-built roads covered the island; agriculture was encouraged; and the products of Britain were sent from its seaports to all parts of the civilized world. Roman occupation continued for nearly four hundred years, during which time Britain became civilized and Romanized. In the country the Celtic speech survived, but Latin was the language of the cities.

In A.D. 411 the Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain, in order to protect Rome from the invasion of the barbarians, who were pressing upon it from the north.

Saxon Conquest of Britain. After the withdrawal of the Roman soldiers, the unprotected Britons were attacked by the wild tribes of Scotland and Ireland, called Scots

SCH. ENG. 16

and Picts, which Roman rule and civilization had never reached. Centuries of protection by Roman arms, and the despotic crushing of all independence and national spirit, had rendered the Britons powerless to defend themselves against their warlike neighbors. The east coast of the island had been subject to frequent attacks from the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. In their extremity the rulers of Britain tried to match these pirates against their enemies from Scotland and Ireland. Land was promised as a reward for their services; and in 449 a fleet of boats from Jutland landed warriors on the Island of Thanet, a short distance from where Canterbury now stands. The Picts were defeated; but the Jutes, reënforced by additional bands from home, became the most dangerous foe that the Britons had yet known. More pay and rations were demanded than could be supplied, and the Teutonic invaders turned upon the Britons, defeated them in one battle after another, and in the course of time conquered, exterminated, or absorbed almost the entire British population as far west as Wales and Cornwall. Britain thus became Teutonic, and the later supremacy of the Angles accounts for its present name of England.

Saxon Kingdoms. The Jutes, in all probability, formed the first permanent Teutonic settlement in England. This settlement, however, was comparatively small. The Saxons were the first invaders with whom the Britons had to deal in large numbers. They, therefore, gave the name of Saxons to all invaders from the continent. The Angles occupied a much greater share of land than the Saxons; and therefore as soon as the Teutonic settlers began to bear a common name among themselves, they were called Angles, or English.

In

the sixteenth or seventeenth century the term AngloSaxon became prevalent as the common designation of the race and language of the Teutonic settlers in England. No sooner were the wars with the Britons ended, than the Anglo-Saxons began fighting among themselves for the mastery of the conquered territory. For a long time, Angles, Jutes, and Saxons were distinct tribes in England. Different bands of each tribe maintained at first their individual existence; and the island was divided among a crowd of smaller states, and a few kingdoms, seven or eight in number, among which in course of time three or four stand out as aspiring for the general supremacy of the country. These seven or eight kingdoms are generally known as the Saxon Heptarchy. They were Kent, the settlement of the Jutes, Sussex (South Saxons), Essex (East Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), and the kingdoms of the Angles, known as East Anglia, Bernicia, Deira, and Mercia. Bernicia and Deira united and formed Northumbria. Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex for a long time disputed with each other the supremacy of the tribes. Finally Wessex gained the ascendency, and England became one nation under West Saxon kings.

Remnant of the Celts. - The Picts and Scots who remained unconquered in Ireland and Scotland, and the remnant of the Britons confined to Wales and Cornwall, were Celts. The Gaelic, or Highland Scotch, the Irish, the Manx, of the Isle of Man, the Welsh and the Cornish, are to-day Celtic people; and though the English language is used by the educated classes, the native Celtic speech is still spoken by all these races. except in Cornwall, where English has replaced it altogether.