Essentials of English Speech and Literature: An Outline of the Origin and Growth of the Language, with Chapters on the Influence of the Bible, the Value of the Dictionary, and the Use of the Grammar in the Study of the English Tongue |
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A. J. Ellis adjective adverb American Anglo-Saxon Ballads Bernicia Bible Biog called Canterbury Tales Caxton century Charles Chaucer Chief correct Dates Born-Died Deira diacritics dialect diphthongal Drama Edward England English language Essays expression France French George grammar grammarians Greek guage Henry Hist History indicate inflections James John King Latin Layamon letters literary literature London Lord Middle English Milton modern NAME Type National Education Association noun participle persons philology Philos phonetic Poems Poet Poet & Mis Poet & Nov poetry printed Professor pronoun pronunciation reader respelling Richard Robert Roman Samuel Saxon Scientific Alphabet sentence Shakespeare slang sound speech spelling split infinitive style symbols teaching tense text-books Theol thing Thomas thou thought tion tionary to-day tongue Trans transitive verb transl Translation usage verb verse vocabulary vowel Websterian system William writing written wrote
Popular passages
Page 39 - THEN sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I WILL sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously : The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation : He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; My father's God, and I will exalt him.
Page 110 - No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of [his] own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion.
Page 128 - How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year! My hasting days fly on with full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Page 128 - Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow, It shall be still in strictest measure even * To that same lot, however mean or high, Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. All is, if I have grace to use it so, As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.
Page 39 - Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
Page 127 - Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, Before thou clothe my fancy in fit sound: Such where the deep transported mind may soar Above the wheeling poles, and at Heaven's door Look in, and see each blissful deity How he before the thunderous throne doth lie...
Page 39 - Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: They sank into the bottom as a stone.
Page 70 - Than I with pen have skill to show. I could rehearse, if that I would, The whole effect of Nature's plaint, When she had lost the perfect mould, The like to whom she could not paint : With wringing hands, how she did cry, And what she said, I know it, aye.
Page 114 - ... manners. For if a man's mind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will easily concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken, and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead, and thereupon said, Heri vidi fragilem frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori.
Page 127 - Where he had mutely sat two years before: Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask That now I use thee in my latter task: Small loss it is that thence can come...