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tage which English grammar is likely to derive from our author's lucubrations.

I might have said at once (but I reserve presenting the derivation at large till we are come to the latter part) that the primitive meaning of your name was way, road, course, and the like; that you had been serviceable to mankind to such a degree as to deserve that your naine should be raised to some dignity in consequence, it was agreed that the meaning of way should be extended not only to that of which way, the masker how, things come to pass, but even to that of Operator, the highest quality that can be conferred on any individual. You do not scorn, for all that, to appear often in your primitive state, for which compliance you are the more to be respected: but still there are attached to your name other notions which require that I should examine some expressions in the Gothic and old Saxon languages, in order to ascertain precisely every one of the functions you have been allotted to perform. In this examination, I shall point out how the high function of operator might be said to be implied in those expressions of antiquity. Began, in old Saxon, meant what the Latins expressed by OPERARI (to work *), exercere, colere, excolere, incolere, PERAMBULARE (to travel about), FLECTERE (to bend, to bow), deflectere, inflectere, curvare, retorquere, DECLINARE (to tend to a different way, to bend one's course to, to avoid, to decline), divertere, recedere, fugere, submittere, servire, procumbere, observare. Instead of this Began, we find the old Saxons used also Beagian, Biegan, Bigan, Bigean Bugan, Bygan; and the Goths Biugan, Bugan (whence Ga-bugan, and the Anglo-Saxon Ge-bugan, as well as Ge-bigan.) Hence By for Byg may have been formed from bygan, to express a sort of agent, equal to Operator or Co-operator; as Be may have been formed from Beg in Began as Bi or Big from Bigan, and even Bii; for g, in Anglo Saxon, used to be often pronounced as if it were i ory, and, in the modern languages, was accordingly changed either into i, j, or y.' pp. 63, 64.

If, instead of wandering thus into hypothetical etymologies, Grammarians would trace the affinities of leading terms in the English language to the sources of other languages of Europe, paying a due attention to the real sounds, as well as to the orthography of each, their labours would equally assist the philologist and the historian. Convinced as we are, that the origins of our most important terms are as yet very imperfectly understood, we regret that the exertions of well-meaning and laborious writers on the subject, by being misdirected, should be inadequate, or even detrimental, to the object which they wish to promote. Mr. S. appears to have a better acquaintance with modern languages, and not less knowledge of the Saxon, than Mr. Tooke; but his present attempt confirms our apprehension, that an imitation of that eccentric writer can only tend to bewilder and weary the philological student.

***Bee, in Kalmuck, means I work; and Bed, in Iberno Celtic, means work"

As Mr. S. never loses sight of his pattern, he must, of course, often deviate from his argument. He frequently quotes his original; and has thus reminded us of various absurdities, which we passed over without notice, on account of their multitude, when reviewing the Era FITOTO. We embrace the present occasion of distinguishing one amongst the crowd.

• Mr. Horne Tooke said, in order to justify his derivation of the Latin words ad and at, that a little consideration of the organs and practice of peech will convince any one that variations and contractions could not but have taken place. At his derivation of the Latin ut and quod, he has presented seven couple of simple consonants; "B and P, G and K, D and T, Z and S, and , V and F, J and Sh (one single character ought, he suggests, to be contrived for Sh); and he has informed us that, the first of each couple being uttered with the compression, and the second of each couple being uttered without the compression, those consonants differ, each from its partner, by no variation whatever of articulation; but singly by a certain unnoticed and almost imperceptible motion or compression of, or near, the larynx; which causes what Wilkins calls Some kind of murmure.” This compression, Mr. Tooke adds, the Welch never use; so that when a Welchman, instead of

"I vow, by Goody, Dat Jenkin is a Wizzard,"

" pronounces,

"I fow, py Cooty, Oat Shenkin iss a Wissart,

"he articulates it, in every respect, exactly as we do; but omits the compression nine times in the sentence; and, for failing in this one point only, changes seven of our consonants: for, we owe seven additional letters (i. e. seven additional sounds in our language), solely to the addition of this one compression to seven different articulations."

In this quotation, we fully approve of the general observation respecting the compression of the mutes p, k, and t, the aspirates f, and th, and the sibillant s: but we object to the example which Mr. Tooke introduced, as it manifests, with many other parts of his work, his utter ignorance of the nature of the Welsh language. Mr. S. has chosen rather to damage the metre and the sense of Mr. Tocke's citation, than to introduce the name of the Divine Being in an irreverent manner and as we esteem piety infinitely preferable to taste, (where they come into competition) we not only applaud, but follow his example. In the manner that Mr. Tooke has chosen to make a Welshman pronounce this line, there are indeed nine compressions of seven different kinds omitted: but if he had known the powers of the Welsh alphabet, he would have been aware that only those of one kind ought to be laid to the account of its deficiency in compressed sounds. The Welsh express the sound of our v by f, and that of our f, by f. To th they assign the same sound as in our word

thigh; but they distinguish the compressed sound, as in thy, by dd. They distinguish b, d, and g hard, as we do, from p, t, and k any deviation from this rule can therefore only be imputed, like numerous errors in the pronunciation of the English language, to provincial corruption. The only real deficiency in the Welsh alphabet, is that of sibillants, among which they have merely the sound of our double s. Hence an uneducated Welshman would doubtless pronounce the letter z, as Mr. Tooke has represented. But he would be equally a stranger to the sound of sh as of j; and would call Jenkin, Syenkin, as George (a common name in Wales) is pronounced, Syorse. Hence the omission of only one of Mr. Tooke's seven modes of compression is really to be attributed to the habitual incompetency of a Welshman to speak English: the rest arise chiefly from the Author's ignorance of his subject, and partly from the different modes of writing the same sound, in the two languages, each of which has to share the blame of a vicious orthography.

That Mr. Tooke should have erred on this topic, cannot be surprizing after his preposterous assertion, that the English language derives nothing from the Welsh. Dr. Johnson, indeed, had said so before him : but the abhorrence and contempt which Mr. T. usually expresses for our great Lexicographer, preclude any apology, that might otherwise have been admitted, for copying his mistakes. The principal defects of Dr. J.'s Dictionary, arise in reality from his entire ignorance of the Welsh and Irish languages; in which he might have found some words that he has improperly fathered on the Anglo-Saxon, as the verb, to kill, from the Irish, and others, which he has referred to French and Spanish origins, as mold (improperly spelled mould) which both the Welsh and the Biscayans use, like ourselves, in the sense of forming, or fashioning. Mr. Salmon, though he adopts the mistakes of his prototype concerning the Welsh tongue, has the good sense to say nothing about it, of himself. He sometimes refers to the Irish, which he calls the Iberno-Celtic; but he seems to have depended on imperfect vocabularies. On the origin of European languages in general, he appears to retain a senti ment which has been held by most Foreign Antiquarians; that the languages which are now commonly called Gothic and Celtic, were originally one and the same. This opinion, we apprehend, can never be admitted by persons who have a competent knowledge of the Welsh and Irish, on the one hand, and of the English and German languages, on the other. The only doubt that we think can be reasonably entertained on the subject, is, whether the languages commonly termed Celtic, are not improperly so denominated; as we suspect the

principal foreign Glossologists to have good ground for regarding the ancient Celtic and Teutonic as correlative diafects of the same primary language; and that they are mis. taken only in supposing the Welsh, Irish, Bas-breton, and Biscayan, to be of Celtic derivation.

We would recommend to Mr. S. the investigation of a question so important to the etymology of the principal European languages, in preference to a continuation of his present work but whatever he does, we would warn him against persisting in a vile imitation of a very faulty original. To have produced an English volume, like the Evenings of Southill, is certainly, on the whole, creditable to a native of France: yet the paragraphs which are written as no Englishman certainly would have written them, are too numerous to be collected, and too various to be specified. If there be any rule that admits of no exception, it may be that which requires every one, who writes in the language of a different country from that in which he first learned to speak, to submit his performance for correction, to a literary native of the former.

Art. VI. Essays chiefly on Chemical Subjects. By the late William Irvine, M. D. F.R.S. Ed. and by his Son, William Irvine, M.D. 8vo. pp. 490. Price 9s. Mawman. 1805.

AMONG the numerous objects of philosophical research, few have yielded more mortification, to those who have undertaken the pursuit, than the nature of heat. It is per, petually shewing itself as almost within grasp, and as frequently mocking its pursuers by its unexpected escape. While some, with the illustrious Scheele, have hoped to point out the materials of which it is composed, others have denied its very existence as a distinct species of matter: and while some have congratulated themselves on being able to snatch it from the solar beam, to separate it from light, and obtain it in a simple form, others, equally confident in their discoveries, have endeavoured to prove that it is inseparable from light, and indeed identified with it. In a search so liable to failure, every real discovery is highly estimable. The mind, repeatedly disappointed by the examination of vain and ill-founded hypotheses, dwells with pleasure on the discovery of important facts, and attends with readiness to the inferences which they fairly authorize. Hence the discourses of Dr. Black, and the explanations of them, which that celebrated philosopher, and his pupil, the late Dr. Irvine, published to the world, were

received with great eagerness, and excited unusual inte

rest.

The present volume cannot fail to be acceptable to the learned world; since it contains, beside several other valuable essays, a correct statement, and particular explanation, of the theory of heat, proposed by the late Dr. Irvine; which, although it was promulgated by no other means than the Doctor's lectures, has been long in a high degree of estimation, and has been adopted by some of the first philosophers of the

age.

The volume under consideration is divided into three parts. The first contains four essays, by Dr. Irvine jun., intended to explain the doctrine of Capacities, and the important inferences which it has induced, and to obviate the objections which have hitherto been made against it. In the second are several essays written by the late Dr. Irvine; and the third part consists of two essays by his son, one on latent heat, and the other on the affections of sulphur with caloric.

It is proper to notice, previous to commencing our remarks on the work itself, that it appears in the preface, that both the late Dr. Irvine and Mr. Watt of Birmingham may claim the honour of discovering the existence of a peculiar metal in black manganese, by experiments which were made, before the discoveries of the Swedish chemists on that substance were made public.

The first essay, in this interesting volume, is on the nature of heat. It contains several very ingenious observations on the different opinions which have been entertained on this subject; but as nothing very novel or decisive is here advanced, we shall proceed to the consideration of the more important essay, on some of the principal discoveries made by help of the thermometer. It is in this essay that Dr. Irvine explains his father's theory; considering that, and the discoveries of Dr. Black, among the advantages which science has derived from the use of that instrument.

It had long been remarked, that ice heated to 32° Fahr. suddenly ceased to rise in its temperature, and pertinaciously continued at the same point until the whole was melted, though the temperature of all the bodies, by which it was immediately surrounded, should far exceed the freezing point. This remarkable phenomenon necessarily gave rise to the inquiries-Did the melting ice receive any heat from the surrounding bodies ?-If it did not, by what strange cause was it prevented from receiving it? and if it did receive it, and during so long a period, what could prevent a corresponding rise of temperature?

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