Hiram Corson

Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English (Classic Reprint) Hiram Corson

Excerpt from Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English The present work is an attempt to furnish the student with such reading material and accompanying aids as will enable him to trace the growth of the English language from the purest existing form of the anglo-saxon or Ang lish down to the end of the fourteenth century, when it had become, with the exception of a few lingering remains of the old in?ections, essentially the same as the unin fiected language of the present day. The selections are sufficiently abundant, if thoroughly mastered, to serve as a basis for the fullest course of English philology that can be made practicable in our high-schools and Colleges, as they are at present constituted. The aim has been, in making up the book, to choose such passages from the works represented as are both interesting in matter and in manner, and philologically valuable. A greater oarz'efy of selections might easily have been made from the carefully edited material that has accumulated the last twenty years, but the real purposes of an educational text-book of this kind are better subserved by fewer extracts of considerable length, and, as far as possible, by complefe productions, representing the best form of the language at different periods, than by tid-bits that give but a faint idea of the general style of a work. The anglo-saxon version of the Gospel according to St. John has been given entire, as affording, by reason of the simplicity of the language and the familiarity of all with the subject-matter, the easiest reading for the beginner, for whom the book is meant. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.