Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from German Literature
Central europe, from the Adriatic to the Baltic, is occupied by a people, who, however divided politically into states, form socially, and as respects race and language, but one nation. The name Germans, which we assign to this great people, is that given to them by the Romans: the distinctive app ellation which they apply to themselves is Deutsch, a term derived from Teutones, by which they were generally known, as also by the name Goths, in the early history of Europe. A section of this Teutonic or Gothic people from Saxony settled in England, and hence an affinity between the speech of the English and their German ancestors. Some words in the language of the Germans are traced to the Sanscrit, one of the most ancient forms of speech, from which it is reasonable to conclude that the Teutones have an eastern origin. In its vast prolificness of words, however, in its independence of Greek and Latin, or any modern tongue, and what may be called its bold originality, the German language is exceedingly remark able. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, are all broken dialects of the Latin; English is a compound of Latin and anglo-saxon, with modern draughts from Greek and French. The German is one and indivisible; excepting for its remote connection with the ancient Sanscrit, and for certain mediaeval improvements, it might be called, as it stands, a purely original tongue. It is of the lite rature - the written thoughts - of the great people who speak this language that we now propose to treat - a literature which has become one of the most varied and extensive in Europe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
