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Reviews Of New Books.
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS .
A Short Handbook of Comparative Philology , by HvnE CnAEK % D . C . L . London : John Weale . —Bro , Hyde Clarke , to whom we are indebted for the lucid and comprehensive manual before us , has long been known to the scientific world as a profound student and a persevering archaeologist . The result of his labours in the field of philology have hitherto been only rendered available to the studious reader through the medium of his more voluminous works ; Mr . Weale , however ( whose name is in itself a
guarantee for the excellence of the book that bears his imprint ) seeing the value of the present treatise , which originally formed part of a larger work , has reprinted it in a portable pocket form at a low price , and has thereby added another item to the catalogue of advantages which the world of letters owes to his discrimination . Bro . Hyde Clarke , we | ire pleased to read , promises an enlarged and extended edition of the work should it meet with approbation from the reading public ; and on this score we think he has little to fear .
To the general reader ( a class daily becoming more numerous ) the very title of the book will seem to foreshadow matter of the driest and most sawdusty complexion ; but such a conception of the character of the treatise , a very slight application to its pages will prove to be utterly unfounded . To any one with the least claim to acultivated taste—and the opinion of those deficient in this respect is worthless— -the facts brought
together here will prove not only interesting but highly entertaining . Singular coincidences are pointed out in the languages of the ancient " stocks " of the human race , which , if laid carefully to heart and thoughtfully pondered , can hardly fail to produce a train of philosophical meditation upon the history and characteristics of the various existing tribes of the great human family—of speculations as to the peculiarities of those
which are extinct , and of those which at present are little known—and even as to some which may be as yet undiscovered . Even to those who read merely for amusement , the work will not prove unattractive . It is written in genuine terse English , totally free from Gallicisms and Latinisms , and a vein of dry humour is perceptible , intertwined with the bone and muscle of the author ' s practical information , giving a zest and flavour to the composition which materially add to the facility of digestion .
Except to the determined student , the introduction is doubtless the most interesting portion of this Handbook . After specifying the different sources whence have sprung the dialects now existing in Europe , the author lucidly describes the various races which have contributed the roots of the language which we Englishmen of the nineteenth century speak and write . And here he draws a well defined parallel between the written and the spoken language used amongst us . To follow out his elaborate arguments would involve a dissertation instead of a sketch , we must therefore confine
ourselves to the few striking points in Bro . Clarke ' s essay , referring those who would become masters of the subject to the work itself . The original inhabitants of these islands , and therefore the primitive founders of that glorious English language which re-echoes to the utmost limits of the habitable globe—are considered by our author to have been the great Euskardian or Iberian stock , of which all that is left are believed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews Of New Books.
REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS .
A Short Handbook of Comparative Philology , by HvnE CnAEK % D . C . L . London : John Weale . —Bro , Hyde Clarke , to whom we are indebted for the lucid and comprehensive manual before us , has long been known to the scientific world as a profound student and a persevering archaeologist . The result of his labours in the field of philology have hitherto been only rendered available to the studious reader through the medium of his more voluminous works ; Mr . Weale , however ( whose name is in itself a
guarantee for the excellence of the book that bears his imprint ) seeing the value of the present treatise , which originally formed part of a larger work , has reprinted it in a portable pocket form at a low price , and has thereby added another item to the catalogue of advantages which the world of letters owes to his discrimination . Bro . Hyde Clarke , we | ire pleased to read , promises an enlarged and extended edition of the work should it meet with approbation from the reading public ; and on this score we think he has little to fear .
To the general reader ( a class daily becoming more numerous ) the very title of the book will seem to foreshadow matter of the driest and most sawdusty complexion ; but such a conception of the character of the treatise , a very slight application to its pages will prove to be utterly unfounded . To any one with the least claim to acultivated taste—and the opinion of those deficient in this respect is worthless— -the facts brought
together here will prove not only interesting but highly entertaining . Singular coincidences are pointed out in the languages of the ancient " stocks " of the human race , which , if laid carefully to heart and thoughtfully pondered , can hardly fail to produce a train of philosophical meditation upon the history and characteristics of the various existing tribes of the great human family—of speculations as to the peculiarities of those
which are extinct , and of those which at present are little known—and even as to some which may be as yet undiscovered . Even to those who read merely for amusement , the work will not prove unattractive . It is written in genuine terse English , totally free from Gallicisms and Latinisms , and a vein of dry humour is perceptible , intertwined with the bone and muscle of the author ' s practical information , giving a zest and flavour to the composition which materially add to the facility of digestion .
Except to the determined student , the introduction is doubtless the most interesting portion of this Handbook . After specifying the different sources whence have sprung the dialects now existing in Europe , the author lucidly describes the various races which have contributed the roots of the language which we Englishmen of the nineteenth century speak and write . And here he draws a well defined parallel between the written and the spoken language used amongst us . To follow out his elaborate arguments would involve a dissertation instead of a sketch , we must therefore confine
ourselves to the few striking points in Bro . Clarke ' s essay , referring those who would become masters of the subject to the work itself . The original inhabitants of these islands , and therefore the primitive founders of that glorious English language which re-echoes to the utmost limits of the habitable globe—are considered by our author to have been the great Euskardian or Iberian stock , of which all that is left are believed