And yet indeed such
argument proceeds altogether on a mistake. One sufficient reason why we
should occupy ourselves with the past of our language is, because the
present is only intelligible in the light of the past, often of a very
remote past indeed. There are anomalies out of number now existing in
our language, which the pure logic of grammar is quite incapable of
explaining; which nothing but a knowledge of its historic evolutions,
and of the disturbing forces which have made themselves felt therein,
will ever enable us to understand. Even as, again, unless we possess
some knowledge of the past, it is impossible that we can ourselves
advance a single step in the unfolding of the latent capabilities of the
language, without the danger of committing some barbarous violation of
its very primary laws.

* * * * *

The plan which I have laid down for myself, and to which I shall adhere,
in this lecture and in those which will succeed it, is as follows. In
this my first lecture I will ask you to consider the language as now it
is, to decompose with me some specimens of it, to prove by these means,
of what elements it is compact, and what functions in it these elements
or component parts severally fulfil; nor shall I leave this subject
without asking you to admire the happy marriage in our tongue of the
languages of the north and south, an advantage which it alone among all
the languages of Europe enjoys. Having thus presented to ourselves the
body which we wish to submit to scrutiny, and having become acquainted,
however slightly, with its composition, I shall invite you to go back
with me, and trace some of the leading changes to which in time past it
has been submitted, and through which it has arrived at what it now is;
and these changes I shall contemplate under four aspects, dedicating a
lecture to each;--changes which have resulted from the birth of new, or
the reception of foreign, words;--changes consequent on the rejection or
extinction of words or powers once possessed by the language;--changes
through the altered meaning of words;--and lastly, as not unworthy of
our attention, but often growing out of very deep roots, changes in the
orthography of words.

{Sidenote: _Alterations unobserved_}

I shall everywhere seek to bring the subject down to our present time,
and not merely call your attention to the changes which have been, but
to those also which are now being, effected.