h at this day.

15. The formation of our language cannot with
propriety be dated earlier than the thirteenth century. It was then that a
free and voluntary amalgamation of its chief constituent materials took
place; and this was somewhat earlier than we date the revival of learning.
The English of the thirteenth century is scarcely intelligible to the
modern reader. Dr. Johnson calls it "a kind of intermediate diction,
neither Saxon nor English;" and says, that Sir John Gower, who wrote in the
latter part of the fourteenth century, was "the first of our authors who
can be properly said to have written English." Contemporary with Gower, the
father of English poetry, was the still greater poet, his disciple Chaucer;
who embraced many of the tenets of Wickliffe, and imbibed something of the
spirit of the reformation, which was now begun.

16. The literary history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is full
of interest; for it is delightful to trace the progress of great and
obvious improvement. The reformation of religion and the revival of
learning were nearly simultaneous. Yet individuals may have acted a
conspicuous part in the latter, who had little to do with the former; for
great learning does not necessarily imply great piety, though, as Dr.
Johnson observes, "the Christian religion always implies or produces a
certain degree of civility and learning."--_Hist. Eng. Lang. before his 4to
Dict._ "The ordinary instructions of the clergy, both philosophical and
religious, gradually fell into contempt, as the Classics superseded the
one, and the Holy Scriptures expelled the other. The first of these changes
was effected by _the early grammarians_ of Europe; and it gave considerable
aid to the reformation, though it had no immediate connexion with that
event. The revival of the English Bible, however, completed the work: and
though its appearance was late, and its progress was retarded in every
possible manner, yet its dispersion was at length equally rapid, extensive,
and effectual."--_Constable's Miscellany_, Vol. xx, p. 75.

17. Peculiar honour is due to those who lead the way in whatever advances
human happiness. And, surely, our just admiration of the character of the
_reformers_ must be not a little enhanced, when we consider what they did
for letters as well as for the church. Learning does not consist in useless
jargon, in a multitude of mere words, or in acute speculations remote from
practice; else the sev