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BASED ON MODERN RESEARCHES, AND ESPECIALLY ON THE WORKS OF M. RENAN.
LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1860.
LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
REMEMBRANCE OF MANY ACTS OF HELP AND KINDNESS.
I wish this little book to be in every respect as unpretending as possible. I do not presume to represent myself as an original investigator, nor do I aspire to a greater distinction than that of representing clearly and intelligently the views of those distinguished writers who have made the study of philology the chief pursuit of their lives.
While I have quoted my authorities for almost every statement of importance, I have generally used my own language, and even in those paragraphs which I have put between inverted commas I have so frequently abbreviated, expanded, or transposed, that the passages must not be criticised as though they had been intended for direct translations.
I do not think that I have ever borrowed from any writer, English, French, or German, without ample acknowledgment. I would not be so dishonest as to shine in borrowed plumes. If in one or two cases I have been guilty of apparent plagiarism it is certainly only from the works of those authors whom I cannot be considered to have robbed wilfully, because their writings are honourably referred to on almost every page. I wish this remark to apply especially to the very clear, learned, and beautiful treatises of M. Ernest Renan, to which I am largely indebted, and without which I should not have undertaken this work.
The questions here handled have always been to me full of interest; and these chapters have been chiefly written because I have invariably found that they are also full of interest to young learners. Should it be proved that I have rashly intruded on a task beyond my powers, no one will more regret this attempt than I shall myself.