Amenities of Literature, Consisting of Ketches and Characters of English Literature.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842. Excerpt: ... THE NAME OF ENGLAND AND OF THE ENGLISH. Two brothers and adventurers of an obscure Saxon tribe raised their ensign of the White Horse on British land: the visit was opportune, or it was expected--this remains astatesecret. Right welcomed by the British monarch and his perplexed council amid their intestine dissensions, as friendly allies renowned for their short and crooked swords called Saxons, which had given a generic name to their tribes. These descendants of Woden, for such even the petty chieftains deemed themselves, whose trade was battle and whose glory was pillage, showed the spiritless what men do who know to conquer, the few against the many. They baffled the strong and they annihilated the weak. The Britons were grateful. The Saxons lodged in the land till they took possession of it. The first Saxon founded the kingdom of Kent; twenty years after, a second in Sussex raised the kingdom of the South-Saxons; in another twenty years appeared the kingdom of the West-Saxons. It was a century after the earliest arrival that the great emigration took place. The tribe of the Angles depopulated their native province and flocked to the fertile island, under that foeman of the Britons whom the bards describe as The Flame Bearer, and The Destroyer. Every quality peculiar to the Saxons was hateful to the Britons; even their fairness of complexion. Taliessin terms Hengist a white-bellied hackney, and his followers are described as of hateful hue and hateful form. The British poet delights to paint a Saxon shivering and quaking, his nhUe hair washed in blood; and another sings how The three things indispensable to genius; understanding, meditation, and perseverance. The three things that improve genius; proper exertion, frequent exertion, an...