of a sentence, the resolution of every one of which may have been clear to them: but, frequently, a part of a sentence can be understood only by means of another part, or some other parts, of the same; and, I am afraid a great deal of time will elapse before the mischief they have thus done can be repaired. I repeat it: they ought to have compared together several whole sentences, so framed as to point out the variations of meaning in each pretended preposition, and to enable one to reduce all such words to distinct classes. When I read in such works, angry at or for a thing, angry with a person, to complain of a thing, to complain of a person, to be surprised of or at a thing, to-be surprised by a person; a man of noble birth, a man descended from noble parents, &c. I cannot but think that the authors have been led to attach to the pretended preposition the meaning which some particular preceding word conveys, or to believe that some particular preceding word requires of itself such preposition. Now, finding that this particular preceding word would now and then suffer another sort of preposition to follow, they have looked upon this as an exception to their rule: by degrees, their exceptions have been as numerous as the instances which agreed with their rule, and a sort of labyrinth has been formed at last from which even such a ball of thread, as Ariadne gave, of old, to Theseus, could hardly extricate any one who entered it. I must repeat it once more; there is no possibility to perceive the use and force of those words which have been called prepositions, but by forming a series of such complete sentences as may contain the necessary circumstances, and taking care that every possible combination of those words with others be introduced as an example, 35. B. 35. B. In your etymologies, take care you do not fall into some similar to those Mr. Horne Tooke has so mer rily ridiculed. XXXVI. S. Had I not read that author with the attention he deserves, one etymology aimed at, not long ago, at a place where I happened to be, concerning the word Guillotine, would have been sufficient to rouse me to watchfulness, in regard to tines and circumstances. 36. B. Why, it is well known that one Guillot either invented, or pretended to have invented, this short way of cutting heads off, and that, in consequence, the machine was described by this inventor's name changed into a sort of adjective in the feminine by the termination ine being added; thus, with machine or invention understood, la Guillotine became the machine or invention of Guillot. XXXVII. S. You are right but the person whom I allude to, as having aimed at the etymology of la Guil lotine, was not quite so conversant with what has passed in his life-time, within these few years, as he pretended to be with what had happened in the times of the old Greeks and Romans: he had never heard of that Frenchman called Guillot; but, wishing to appear a scholar, on hearing somebody read in the daily papers "Citizen M. was sent to the Guillotine," he said: "When an old "friend of mine first met with the word Guillotine, he 86 came and asked me what the meaning of it was. "Why, said I: Guillotine?-Guillotine ?—İ never "found any thing like that word in Homer, Virgil, or "any ancient author: "But," replied my friend, "perhaps "the word is not a very old one." On this, I mused a little; and, soon after, I told him: "I have got the de"rivation. Don't you remember that, in our youthful days, "days, when we were little boys, we used to play at "push-pin together? Don't you remember that, when " I had driven my pin over yours, and so that mine 66 approached the head of yours (the head, you know, " is very near the neck), I called out immediately Gull! "took your pin and made it my property?—Now, to gull one is to take slily something from him: : ergo, that word Guillotine is a word compounded of gull, "take off, ori (a Greek word equal to) that, and ne (an ❝ abbreviation of) neck: so that Guillotine means properly either take off that neck or taking off that neck.” 37. B. In some centuries, that ridiculous etymology will perhaps appear a most learned one, and be gravely maintained to be the truest that could be given. · XXXVIII. S. There is no ground so slippery as that which Etymologists tread, in search of primitives. That those men have been useful is acknowledged; that they are apt to mistake one thing for another, is too often the case but the more arduous the pursuit is, the more honour will be attached to him who, stumbling less than his companions, will be able to reach further, and bring back rarities of intrinsic value. The generality of etymologists, in seeking after the origin of a word, have indeed rather neglected to consider the property vested in all of the same class for certain occasions, they have. attended too much to the present way of writing, or of pronouncing, a word: they seem, in short, to have called in aid their eyes and their ears, for measuring a word by its length or by its sound, and to have forgotten that their judgment ought to have been appointed president over the others, with full power to check or approve, as well as to discriminate the boundaries assigned to this. property, property, then to that, &c. in common with of separate from other individuals of the same denomination. 38. B. With the inhabitants of a country wherein every thing was rough, climate, avocations, and, above all wherein a spirit for rapine and war prevailed; with those, I say, the manners and the language must have been rough like the people themselves; the very words which their wants forced them to borrow from other people were distorted, when attempted to be uttered or written; and, if they abridged words, the more speedily to communicate their thoughts, they retained whatever was rough, and even changed the soft elements into harsh ones: so that many a combination of letters came from their mouths like a terrific clap of thunder. On the other hand, with the inhabitants of a country wherein every thing was mild, where every object breathed peace and benevolence, the language must have been rendered soft, soothing; every word they borrowed from other people has been mellowed; and, in an abbreviated word, even come from some primitive whereof the harsh elements had been suppressed, the soft ones were often changed into others softer still: hence, many a combination of letters came, from the mouths of these inhabitants, like those musical sounds which lull the soul to tender passions. XXXIX. S. The two extremes which you have just described, men have found means to blend together; and where the mixture has been made in due proportion, there the language has proved to be possessed of every desirable quality. But language has undergone many a revolution, as well as every state, and the manners of its inhabitants. In the first ages of the world, mankind, knowing but few few wants, could use but few words: in proportion as new wants were felt by man, in the same proportion did man create new words. But, as a pure Hebrew never did, nor could exist for a long time, in a considerable region, without dialects, any more than pure elements; so the Celtic, sprung from the Hebraic tongue, could not exist long, in any considerable region, without subdividing itself into several other dialects. 39. B. Pezron, in his Antiquities of Nations, says that the Celtic were anciently seated in both the extremities of Europe towards the East and West; and Peloutier asserts that all the European nations were originally of the Celtic extract. 1 XL. S. Now, Boulet, in his Memoirs on the Celtic, says that this second language (the Celtic) must have been the mother of all the dialects which have, by suc cession of time, been spoken in the countries that either the Celta or the Celto-Scythæ have occupied. According to that Author, the Gothic, the Latin, the Anglo-Saxon, the Teutonic, the Islandic, the Runic, the Swedish, the Danish, the German, the English, the Italian, the Spanish, the French, are languages formed immediately, or mediately, wholly or partly, from the Celtic. 40. B. The Gothic itself, consisted of several dialects, and so it was with Latin, Anglo-Saxon, &c. That the Greek language was originally a dialect of the Celtic or Celto-Scythian, has been strongly asserted*; and, that it was afterwards subdivided into several dialects, is well known. Græcis literis usi sunt Galli, pariter et Germani; at non acceptis a Græcis, sed Scythis, à quibus et suas Græci, Scytharum soboles, faccepere. Earum Græcis similium literarum vestigia adhuc hodie supersunt in literaturâ Anglo-Saxonum, quos ortu Germanos Boxhornius, origin. Gallicarum, p. 105. esse constat. |