More than one thousand languages are spoken on the globe, and these are
so different that each is unintelligible to the speakers of the other.

The study of these languages is an especial science. Students of this
science, philologists, as they are called, have traced, classed, and
grouped these thousand languages, until they have divided them into six
main groups, or mother tongues.

The formations of the verbs, the plurals, and the declensions are the
main guides to the identification of a language.

The study of philology is an intensely interesting one, and while it is
very difficult, its pleasures are easily within the reach of every young
scholar who is beginning the study of Latin, French, and German.

Our own English language is one of the most interesting with which to
begin the study.

The ancient Britons were Celts, and spoke Celtic; when they were
conquered by the Romans, Latin words crept into the tongue; and as
Romans gave place to the Saxons, and the Saxons to the Danes, words
from the German and Norse tongues were added to the language. Finally,
came the Norman Conquest, and with it a flood of French words. The
English we speak to-day is a mixture of Celtic, Latin, Saxon, Danish,
and French.

As you learn your foreign languages you will be interested to find how
many Latin words and forms you are using every day; and as for German
and French, there are so many words in these languages resembling our