I have, I believe, formerly observed with regard to the character of the governments of the East, that their tendency was despotic, that is, towards unity; whilst that of the Greek governments, on the other hand, leaned to the manifold and the popular, the unity in them being purely ideal, namely of all as an identification of the whole. In the northern or Gothic nations the aim and purpose of the government were the preservation of the rights and interests of the individual in conjunction with those of the whole. The individual interest was sacred. In the character and tendency of the Greek and Gothic languages there is precisely the same relative difference. In Greek the sentences are long, and the structure architectural, so that each part or clause is insignificant when compared with the whole. The result is every thing, the steps and processes nothing. But in the Gothic and, generally, in what we call the modern, languages, the structure is short, simple, and complete in each part, and the connexion of the parts with the sum total of the discourse is maintained by the sequency of the logic, or the community of feelings excited between the writer and his readers. As an instance equally delightful and complete, of what may be called the Gothic structure as contra-distinguished from that of the Greeks, let me cite a part of our famous Chaucer's character of a parish priest as he should be. Can it ever be quoted too often? A good man thér was of religiöun That was a pouré Parsone of a toun, But riche he was of holy thought and werk; He was alsó a lerned man, a clerk, That Cristés gospel trewély wolde preche; His párishens [1] devoutly wolde he teche; Benigne he was, and wonder [2] diligent, And in adversite ful patient, And swiche [3] he was ypreved [4] often sithes [5]; Ful loth were him to cursen for his tithes, But rather wolde he yeven [6] out of doute Unto his pouré párishens aboute Of hís offríng, and eke of his substánce; He coude in litel thing have suffisance: Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder, But he ne [7] left nought for no rain ne [8] thonder, In sikenesse and in mischief to visíte The ferrest [9] in his parish moche and lite [10] Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf: This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, [11] That first he wrought, and afterward he taught, Out of the gospel he the wordés caught, And this figúre he added yet thereto, That if gold rusté, what should iren do. He setté not his benefice to hire, And lette [12] his shepe accombred [13] in the mire, And ran untó Londón untó Seint Poules, To seken him a chantérie for soules, Or with a brotherhede to be withold, But dwelt at home, and kepté wel his fold, So that the wolf ne made it not miscarie: He was a shepherd and no mercenarie; And though he holy were and vertuous, He was to sinful men not dispitous, [14] Ne of his speché dangerous ne digne, [15]