It must be admitted, nevertheless, that this
change if occasionally adopted in our polished dialect would
afford an agreeable variety by no means unmusical. In conversation
with a very learned Grecian on this subject, he seemed to consider
because the _learned_ are constantly, and sometimes very
capriciously, introducing _new_ words into our language, that
such words as _en_ might be introduced for similar reasons,
namely, mere fancy or caprice; on this subject I greatly differ
from him: our aboriginal Saxon population has never corrupted our
language nor destroyed its energetic character half so much as the
mere classical scholar. Hence the necessity, in order to a
complete knowledge of our mother tongue, that we should study the
Anglo-Saxon still found in the provinces.
_Het_ for _it_ is still also common amongst the
peasantry. In early Saxon writers, it was usually written
_hit_, sometimes _hyt_.
"Als _hit_ in heaven y-doe,
Evar in yearth beene it also."
_Metrical Lord's Prayer of_ 1160.
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