artists, orators, and philosophers--flocked to Rome, opened schools, and
taught their arts. Indeed, the preëminence of Greek culture became so
great that Rome almost lost her ambition to be original, and her writers
vied with each other in their efforts to reproduce in Latin what was
choicest in Greek literature. As a consequence of all this, the
civilization and national life of Rome became largely Grecian, and to
Greece she owed her literature and her art.

«Rome and the Modern World.» After conquering the world, Rome impressed
her language, laws, customs of living, and modes of thinking upon the
subject nations, and they became Roman; and the world has remained
largely Roman ever since. Latin continued to live, and the knowledge of
Latin was the only light of learning that burned steadily through the
dark ages that followed the downfall of the Roman Empire. Latin was the
common language of scholars and remained so even down to the days of
Shakespeare. Even yet it is more nearly than any other tongue the
universal language of the learned. The life of to-day is much nearer
the life of ancient Rome than the lapse of centuries would lead one to
suppose. You and I are Romans still in many ways, and if Cæsar and
Cicero should appear among us, we should not find them, except for dress
and language, much unlike men of to-day.

«Latin and English.» Do you know that more than half of the words in the
English dictionary are Latin, and that you are speaking more or less
Latin every day? How has this come about? In the year 1066 William the
Conqueror invaded England with an army of Normans. The Normans spoke
French--which, you remember, is descended from Latin--and spread their
language to a considerable extent over England, and so Norman-French
played an important part in the formation of English and forms a large
proportion of our vocabulary. Furthermore, great numbers of almost pure