time’; or as an adjective, ‘a seldom pleasure.’ Any noun, adjective, or neuter verb can be used as an active verb. You can ‘happy’ your friend, ‘malice’ or ‘fool’ your enemy, or ‘fall’ an axe upon his neck.” Even in modern English, almost any noun can be used as a verb. Thus we can say, “to _paper_ a room”; “to _water_ the horses”; “to _black-ball_ a candidate”; to “_iron_ a shirt” or “a prisoner”; “to _toe_ the line.” On the other hand, verbs may be used as nouns; for we can speak of a _work_, of a beautiful _print_, of a long _walk_, and so on. CHAPTER IV. SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH OF DIFFERENT PERIODS. 1. +Vocabulary and Grammar.+-- The oldest English or Anglo-Saxon differs from modern English both in vocabulary and in grammar-- in the words it uses and in the inflexions it employs. The difference is often startling. And yet, if we look closely at the words and their dress, we shall most often find that the words which look so strange are the very words with which we are most familiar-- words that we are in the habit of using every day; and that it is their dress alone that is strange and antiquated. The effect is the same as if we were to dress a modern man in the clothes worn a thousand years ago: the chances are that we should not be able to recognise even our dearest friend. 2. +A Specimen from Anglo-Saxon.+-- Let us take as an example a verse from the Anglo-Saxon version of one of the Gospels. The well-known verse, Luke ii. 40, runs thus in our oldest English version:-- Sóþlíce ðaet cild weox, and waes gestrangod, wisdómes full; and Godes gyfu waes on him. Now this looks like an extract from a foreign language; but it is not: it is our own veritable mother-tongue. Every word is pure ordinary English; it is the dress-- the spelling and the inflexions-- that is quaint and old-fashioned. This will be plain from a literal translation:-- Soothly that child waxed, and was strengthened, wisdoms full (= full of wisdom); and God’s gift was on him. 3. +A Comparison.+-- This will become plainer if we compare the English of the Gospels as it was written in different periods of our language. The alteration in the meanings of words, the changes in the application of them, the variation in the use of phrases, the falling away of the inflexions-- all these things become plain to the eye and to the mind as soon as we thoughtfully compare the different versions. The following are extracts from the Anglo-Saxon version (995), the version of Wycliffe (1389) and of Tyndale (1526), of the passage in Luke ii. 44, 45:-- ANGLO-SAXON. WYCLIFFE. TYNDALE. Wéndon ðaet he on heora gefére wáere, ðá comon hig ánes daeges faer, and hine sóhton betweox his magas and his cúðan. Forsothe thei gessinge him to be in the felowschipe, camen the wey of á day, and souȝten him among his cosyns and knowen.