The best way, therefore, to gain a practical knowledge of the changes which our language has undergone, is, to read some of our older authors in retrograde order, till the style employed at times more and more remote, becomes in some degree familiar.

Pursued in this manner, the study will be less difficult, and the labour of the curious inquirer, which may be suspended or resumed at pleasure, will be better repaid, than if he proceed in the order of history, and attempt at first the Saxon remains.
4.

The value of a language as an object of study, depends chiefly on the character of the _books_ which it contains; and, secondarily, on its connexion with others more worthy to be thoroughly known.

In this instance, there are several circumstances which are calculated soon to discourage research.

As our language took its rise during the barbarism of the dark ages, the books through which its early history must be traced, are not only few and meagre, but, in respect to grammar, unsettled and diverse.