Slow and almost imperceptible have been the steps in this as in other examples of that revolution of which the progress may be faintly traced in the writings of Spenser, and Shakspeare, and Milton, and even in those of the great modern Masters of the last century. In our _own_ generation it has not been consummated! A striking instance occurs in the old inflection of the third person singular “He Giv-_eth_,” still partially used in the venerable forms of Scripture. This inflection, now fast passing into oblivion, trifling as it may appear, forms a link which serves to associate the English language not only with the German, but with the Latin and the Sanscrit!(35) The Auxiliary Verb may probably be regarded as the most important part of Language. Now it is highly deserving of remark, that in the Anglo-Saxon there existed an Auxiliary Verb, “Beo, or Beonne, To Be,” which has been abandoned in the modern English. This Verb is interesting, not merely from its important functions as a part of Language, but also from its forming a link, as will hereafter appear, between the Anglo-Saxon, the German, the dialects of the English Provinces, and of the Scottish Lowlands. From the English of Literature it has been lost since the days of Chaucer, by whom it is commonly used, as in the following example: “These two sinnes _bin_ so nigh cosins.”—_Person’s Tale._ The peculiarities which distinguish the dialects of the English Counties from the language of the higher classes of society are not, as is perhaps generally supposed, the results of the capricious deviation of uncultivated minds from an established standard. On the contrary, they appear clearly for the most part to be various relics or Fragments of Old English or Anglo-Saxon, which the more educated classes have lost. For example, To “axe” (for To ask,) “I conne,” (I can,) expressions used by the peasantry of Shropshire, are words of Saxon origin that occur in Chaucer. In an able work on the peculiarities of the dialect of Lancashire, by Mr. Collier,(36) it has been shown with much learning and research that those peculiarities are to be recognized in Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, and other old English writers. Obsolete Norman, as well as Saxon, words occur in this dialect. Similar inferences with regard to the Lowland Scotch may be drawn from Mr. Jamieson’s work on that branch of the Anglo-Saxon.