Such are the chief points in the declension of nouns and the conjugation of verbs that give a difference of character between the ancient Anglo-Saxon and the modern English: and it has already been stated that the difference between the New and the Old German, the Dutch and the Frisian, the Italian, &c., and the Latin, the Romaic and the Greek, &c., are precisely similar. How far two languages pass with equal rapidity from their ancient to their modern, from their inflected to their uninflected state (in other words, how far all languages alter at the same rate), is a question that will be noticed elsewhere. At present, it is sufficient to say, that (just as we should expect _[`a] priori_) languages do _not_ alter at the same rate. Akin to the last question is a second one: viz.: how far the rate of change in a given language can be accelerated by external circumstances. This second question bears immediately upon the history of the English language. The grammar of the current idiom compared with the grammar of the Anglo-Saxon is simplified. How far was this simplification of the grammar promoted by the Norman Conquest. The current views exaggerate the influence of the Norman Conquest and of French connexions. The remark of Mr. Price in his Preface to Warton, acceded to by Mr. Hallam in his Introduction to the Literature of Europe, is, that every one of the {117} other Low Germanic languages (affected by nothing corresponding to the Norman Conquest) displays the same simplification of grammar as the Anglo-Saxon (affected by the Norman Conquest) displays. Confirmatory of this remark, it may be added, that compared with the Icelandic, the Danish and Swedish do the same. Derogatory to it is the comparatively complex grammar of the _new_ German, compared, not only with the Old High German, but with the Moeso-Gothic. An extract from Mr. Hallam shall close the present section and introduce the next.