early minstrelsy for celebrating the deeds
of gods and warriors, and scarcely half-adapted afterward to the not
wholly alien tone of the oldest Hebrew Scriptures. But the Latin
schools, set up by the Italian monks, introduced into England a totally
new and highly-developed literature. The pagan Anglo-Saxons had not
advanced beyond the stage of ballads; they had no history, or other
prose literature of their own, except, perhaps, a few traditional
genealogical lists, mostly mythical, and adapted to an artificial
grouping by eights and forties. The Roman missionaries brought over the
Roman works, with their developed historical and philosophical style;
and the change induced in England by copying these originals was as
great as the change would now be from the rude Polynesian myths and
ballads to a history of Polynesia written in English, and after English
prototypes, by a native convert. In fact, the Latin language was almost
as important to the new departure as the Latin models. While the old
English literary form, restricted entirely to poetry, was unfitted for
any serious narrative or any reflective work, the old English tongue,
suited only to the practical needs of a rude warrior race, was unfitted
for the expression of any but the simplest and most material ideas. It
is true, the vocabulary was copious, especially in terms for natural
objects, and it was far richer than might be expected even in words
referring to mental states and emotions; but in the expression of
abstract ideas, and in idioms suitable for philosophical discussion, it
remained still, of course, very deficient. Hence the new serious
literature was necessarily written entirely in the Latin language, which
alone possessed the words and modes of speech fitted for its
development; but to exclude it on that account from the consideration of
Anglo-Saxon literature, as many writers have done, would be an absurd
affectation. The Latin writings of Englishmen are an integral part of
English thought, and an important factor in the evolution of English
culture. Gradually, as English monks grew to read Latin from generation
to generation, they invented corresponding compounds in their own
language for the abstract words of the southern tongue; and therefore by
the beginning of the eleventh century, the West Saxon speech of AElfred
and his successors had grown into a comparatively wealthy dialect,
suitable for the expression of many ideas unfamiliar to the rude pi