CHAPTER VI.
OF THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
"Non mediocres enim tenebrae in sylva, ubi haec captanda: neque eon, quo pervenire volumus semitae tritae: neque non in tramitibus quaedam objecta, quae euntem retinere possent."-- VARRO.

_De Lingua Latina_, Lib.

iv, p.

4.
1.

In order that we may set a just value upon the literary labours of those who, in former times, gave particular attention to the culture of the English language, and that we may the better judge of the credibility of modern pretensions to further improvements, it seems necessary that we should know something of the course of events through which its acknowledged melioration in earlier days took place.