hen_ works" we say "_earth_ works". 'Golden' and
'earthen', it is true, still belong to our living speech, though mainly
as part of our poetic diction, or of the solemn and thus stereotyped
language of Scripture; but a whole company of such words have nearly or
quite disappeared; some lately, some long ago. 'Steelen' and 'flowren'
belong only to the earliest period of the language; 'rosen' also went
early. Chaucer is my latest authority for it ("_rosen_ chapelet").
'Hairen' is in Wiclif and in Chaucer; 'stonen' in the former (John iii.
6){190}. 'Silvern' stood originally in Wiclif's Bible ("_silverne_
housis to Diane", Acts xix. 24); but already in the second recension of
this was exchanged for 'silver'; 'hornen', still in provincial use, he
also employs, and 'clayen' (Job iv. 19) no less. 'Tinnen' occurs in
Sylvester's _Du Bartas_; where also we meet with "Jove's _milken_
alley", as a name for the _Via Lactea_, in Bacon also not "the _Milky_",
but "the _Milken_ Way". In the coarse polemics of the Reformation the
phrase, "_breaden_ god", provoked by the Romish doctrine of
transubstantiation, was of frequent employment, and occurs as late as in
Oldham. "_Mothen_ parchments" is in Fulke; "_twiggen_ bottle" in
Shakespeare; '_yewen_', or, according to earlier spelling, "_ewghen_
bow", in Spenser; "_cedarn_ alley", and "_azurn_ sheen" are both in
Milton; "_boxen_ leaves" in Dryden; "a _treen_ cup" in Jeremy Taylor;
"_eldern_ popguns" in Sir Thomas Overbury; "a _glassen_ breast", in
Whitlock; "a _reeden_ hat" in Coryat; 'yarnen' occurs in Turberville;
'furzen' in Holland; 'threaden' in Shakespeare; and 'bricken', 'papern'
appear in our provincial glossaries as still in use.

It is true that many of these adjectives still hold their ground; but
it is curious to note how the roots which sustain even these are being
gradually cut away from beneath them. Thus 'brazen' might at first sight
seem as strongly established in the language as ever; it is far from so
being; its supports are being cut from beneath it. Even now it only
lives in a tropical and secondary sense, as 'a _brazen_ face'; or if in
a literal, in poetic diction or in the consecrated language of
Scripture, as 'the _brazen_ serpent'; otherwise we say 'a _brass_
farthing', 'a _brass_ candlestick'. It is the same with 'oaten',
'birchen', 'beechen', 'strawen', and many more, whereof some are
obsolescent, some obsolete, the language manifestly tending now, as it
has tende