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PREFACE.

literature of the Anglo-Saxons. The singularly clear and comprehensive grammatical elucidations of Mr. Bosworth have rendered the access easy, and even attractive; and it may be hoped that henceforward a knowledge not only of the acts and institutions of our ancestors, but of their habits of thought and expression, will be considered as amongst the indispensable elements of a liberal education. The true genius of our tongue, the legitimate clue to its richest treasures, can never be ascertained but by ascending to its source. Shakespeare and the giants of Shakespeare's day, are only to be adequately understood by the man who has traced up the derivation of that unrivalled medium, through which their feelings and conceptions have been transmitted to these later times - sed hactenus hæc, - we had intended to extend these observations into something like a brief essay on Anglo-Saxon literature, but this is not the place, and we must be content with a general reference for information, at once minute and interesting, to Mr. Bosworth's “Elements,” and to the admirable “Illustrations” of Mr. Conybeare.

The little work which is now placed in the reader's hands, will be found, with the aid of the closely verbal rendering, available as an appendix to the grammar - a kind of praxis on the rudi-