ted in another view, and that the same number of words
may be very differently classified. Instead of arranging them according to
the languages whence they are derived, let them be disposed according to
the meanings that they convey. Let it be said, for instance, that out of
40,000 words, 10,000 are the names of natural objects, that 1000 denote
abstract ideas, that 1000 relate to warfare, 1000 to church matters, 500 to
points of chivalry, 1000 to agriculture, and so on through the whole. In
this case the analysis is not historical but logical; the words being
classed not according to their _origin_, but according to their _meaning_.

Now the logical and historical analyses of a language generally in some
degree coincide; that is, terms for a certain set of ideas come from
certain languages; just as in English a large proportion of our chemical
terms are Arabic, whilst a still larger one of our legal ones are
Anglo-Norman.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II.

THE RELATION OF THE ENGLISH TO THE ANGLO-SAXON, AND THE STAGES OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

s. 96. The relation of the present English to the Anglo-Saxon is that of a
_modern_ language to an _ancient_ one: the words _modern_ and _ancient_
being used in a defined and technical sense.

Let the word _smidhum_ illustrate this. _Smidh-um_, the dative plural of
_smidh_, is equivalent in meaning to the English _to smiths_; or to the
Latin _fabr-is_. _Smidhum_, however, is a single Anglo-Saxon word (a
substantive, and nothing more); whilst its English equivalent is two words
(i.e., a substantive with the addition of a preposition). The letter s, in
_smiths_, shows that the word is plural. The -um, in _smidhum_, does this
and something more. It is the sign of the _dative case_ plural. The -um in
_smidhum_, is the part of a word. The preposition _to_ is a separate word
with an independent existence. _Smidhum_ is the radical syllable _smidh_ +
the subordinate inflectional syllable -um, the sign of the dative case. The
combination _to smiths_ is the substantive _smiths_ + the preposition _to_,
equivalent in power to the sign of a dative case, but different from it in
form. As far, then, as the words just quoted is concerned, the Anglo-Saxon
differs from the English by expressing an idea by a certain _modification
of the form of the root_, whereas the modern English denotes the same idea
by _the addition of a preposition_; in other words, the Saxon _infle