to devote to etymological researches, that portion of time only which his health required should be allowed for relaxation, and freedom from severe study.

The subject appears to him so very important, that he cannot but express a desire to see such errors as he may have fallen into, fully detected: any communication, therefore, which may tend to improve the plan he has pursued, will be thank fully received,

OR,

THE EVENINGS OF SOUTHILL.

BOOK I.

The Dialogue is between the Author and a Mr. By.* Several points of great importance to all nations are discussed; if done with success, the completion of the Author's undertaking may become of universal utility.

I. S. WHAT! Is it you, my dear By ?-Welcome to Southill, dearest of my friends! I take it exceedingly kind of you to afford me an opportunity to thank you again, personally, for having introduced me to your numerous relatives: they have indeed been, ever since, emulous in serving me. What can I do in return for all your favours?

1. B. Do me justice, and rescue my name from the

* The monosyllable By may appear, to people who dislike any name which so soon dies away in one's mouth, a very insignificant appellation; but the Author is so much indebted to that monosyllabical friend, that he chose to converse with him in preference to any other individual.

disgrace

disgrace it has undergone; I came here on purpose to request it of you..

II. S. It is my duty to do all in my power to show myself worthy of the friendship with which you honour me. Any attempt to disgrace yon, is an attempt to disgrace myself. Let me know what you expect from me.

suc

2. B. Having heard that you intended to publish a work on certain relatives of mine settled in France, and different parts of the world, I supposed that you would have occasion to speak of me and my English kindred. Many have been the writers who strove to ascertain how we came to be what we are; but, if one of them ceeded in two or three instances, he failed in all the rest, and presented to his readers mere conjectures which proved of little or no service. I am particularly anxious that the subject should be so handled that literature might derive substantial benefit from it; and fearing that you might suffer yourself to be led away by the silly genealogies which, every where, have been imposed upon men concerning us, I determined to come and inquire how far you had made yourself acquainted with the high dignities and functions to which we are entitled, in the world, either by our noble origin, or by the great things we have performed, and still are daily performing.

III. S. In this, my dear little By, I see an additional favour conferred on me: you wish to guide me in the work I have undertaken.

3. B. I do not precisely know which predominates, in the step I have taken, my friendship to you, or my desire of making you open the eyes of a great man in your line. He has wronged me very much. His learning indeed is so very extensive, that people have been afraid to attempt doing me justice: but, with the assistance I can afford you, if it be necessary to give you any, I hope

I hope that the world will be undeceived, and behold me, in your Apx, very differently from what I have been described to be in the Επεα πτεροεντα*.

IV. S. My dear little By, I dare say that no man is more open to conviction than the one you allude to: I am even sure that he will feel great satisfaction in seeing that he has roused in me the desire of seconding his views. I am now fighting under his banner. If, in my efforts to distinguish myself, I do any thing that may deserve praise, the glory ought, from the custom established in the navy and in the army, to be his, as much as, if not more than, mine; nor is there any necessity for me to quote precedents on this point. The ground he has chosen to fight upon could not be better: having, however, perceived that he has not always been able to procure the best arms for fighting with that advantage

The author of the present work had, in his prospectus, given the Silves of Southill for a second title; but some persons having objected to the word Silve, not yet used in English (as Sylva in Spanish, Selva in Italian, in Greek, Silve in French), to express occasional thoughts and reflections thrown upon paper as they occur, to be afterwards revised and distributed into the places which may suit them best in some work or other; he has deemed it proper to change the intended second title into The Evenings of Southill, retaining for first title Apxal (Archai, which means Origins), because of the Greek title chosen by Mr. Horne Tooke to express winged words. By Archai or the Evenings of Southil', the reader is therefore to understand something equal to “ Origins are the Evening Amusements of Southill."

The Author has been advised to separate the English part from the French, and to begin with a review of some of the English Prepositions, in order that the English reader may be the better prepared for entering into the discussions of the French Prepositions, and discovering the affinity which must exist between the two languages, though the words appear very different.