explain. For his Teutonic etymologies he is, as he coolly tells us, commonly indebted to Junius or Skinner. "As our knowledge of the northern literature," he says in his preface (meaning probably his own knowledge and that of the persons of his time whom he looked up to as learned) " is so scanty, that of words originally Teutonic the original is not always to be found in any ancient language, I have inserted Dutch and German substitutes." In what degree these originals, or these substitutes as he terms them, answered his purpose; nay even whether they existed or not; or where to look for them; what other evidence, collateral or direct from the same sources, might be sought to prove or disprove the point in question, he was utterly incompetent to decide. He himself knew little; in that which he takes on trust, the errors of omission or commission of his leaders, were beyond his power to supply, or to correct.

In order to execute duly the office of lexicographer of any living tongue, it appears necessary in the first place, and as far as practicable, to trace upward each word till it can be derived from some single term in the same or another language, representing a given, plain, sensible image, being either a noun the name of an object perceived by one of the senses, or a verb expressing a simple operation.-Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sensu, is no less true in etymology than in philosophy. Where the English word had been borrowed directly or indirectly from the Latin, this sort of indagation might have been committed to Dr. Johnson; where it was a word of native growth, it was a task to which he was unequal.

To the critic or etymologist of any other dialect of the Teutonic, the acquisition of ours is quite as necessary an accomplishment, as some skill in one or more of theirs is to us. Adelung, indeed, admits this; and some still earlier German lexicographers have made good use of Somner, Selden, and our other antiquaries. Professor Meiners of Gottingen in his entertaining and sensible "Briefe über die Schweiz," happening to notice in the dialects of German spoken in Suabia, Alsace and Swisserland, some words which are not in use in the politer dialects, detects a few among these words which have an analogy with English only. He instances Hammen, a ham; Lucken, to look. But among the barbarous terms which completely puzzle the learned Professor, and of which he doubts the existence in any other Teutonic dialect, is the verb "loosen" (welches hören heisst) palpably no other than our verb to listen, but which his slender acquaintance with our tongue had prevented him from identifying.

Noch häufiger hört man in der Schweiz so sehr verwandelte Wörter, dass ein Teutscher sie schwerlich wieder erkennen kann, wie Sparz für Spargel, Ziestick für Dienstag: oder auch so gänzlich fremde, dass man billig zweyfeln

But to revert to the subject on which I meant to trouble you, namely, the observation of some occasional coincidences between the Italian and our language, of which I know not that notice has yet been taken :-To those which may be traced through the medium of French, or to mere terms of art imported by us with the arts themselves I do not allude, but to some, of the introduction of which the manner and the era are not quite so obvious. The first term which I shall beg to notice is one of which we even seem vain, as if not only it was peculiar to our tongue, but as if it conveyed an undefinable expression of some feeling to which all but Englishmen were strangers, Comfort and comfortable. Now the Italian words Conforto, confortevole, confortare, seem to be employed in the same identical acceptation. For instance, "Tu sola alcun Conforto rechi al mortal mio Duol." Alfieri. Again, Quivi la distanza ne' gradi è pur pochissima; pochissimo altresi basta per vivere tutti confortevolmente. Scelta di Lettere familiari. Vol. 2. One might indeed suppose the term not only to be original in Italian, but of very frequent occurrence, as from it are formed at least a dozen derivatives.

In the word Metropolis the Italians and English appear to have made exactly the same deflection from the sense in the original tongue, by confounding it with the meaning of capital city. The French do not commit this error, but employ the word Métropole in the sense of the Parent State, the community from which a colony is derived.

The Italian Cesta, a standing basket, and Desco, a table, appear to have given birth to our chest and desk. From Gonna, Tovaglia; gown, towel, are as manifestly derived. Gozzo (pronounced Gotso) is one name for a glass-decanter; a provincial name for a pitcher in the east of England is Gotch. Our verbs, to tumble, to remember, and nouns remembrance, redundance, have perfect affinity with the Italian tombolare, rimembrare, Rimembranza, Redondanza; none with French, at least with modern French. Scopa, a birch tree, is more likely to have given birth to their verb scopare, thence to ours to sweep, than the converse. Stringa, a lace, formed from the verb Strignere, appears to give origin to our string. Whether the Italians may not have derived from their northern ancestors such terms as Tané, tawny, Nocca, a knuckle, Astio, hate, Scherno, scorn, Ubino, a hobby, Grinza, a wrinkle, recere, to vomit, I shall not presume to contest, but at least these terms appear preserved in our dialect, and in some instances in no other Teutonic dialect.

muss, ob sie jemals in einem in Teutschland geschrieben en Buch, oder auch nur in einer andern teutschen Provinz seyen gebraucht worden. Dergleichen ist zum Beyspiel das Wort Abbrecher, welches so viel als Lichtputze bedeutet; & loosen, welches hören heisst.

In the idiom of the two tongues occur also odd instances of similarity; "sta in quattro Fiorini," the article stands me (or costs) so much; Fuggir via, to run away: Andar in Collera, to go in a passion; Lasciar per morto, to leave for dead; Andate per il Vino, go for the wine; the verb volere, signifying simple futu rity; and in many other instances which will occur to those familiar with this tongue. The similarity in these instances may, I admit, be attributed to mere accident; but that there must have existed some intercourse between the persons speaking these languages in order to bring about so many points of resemblance will not perhaps be denied. Possibly this may be the cause in the southern provinces of France, over which England long held sway, the dialect spoken has considerable affinity with Italian. The garrisons of our countrymen, conversing there with a more opulent and polished race, may have brought home and naturalised a few terms, which have afterwards happened not to be adopted in the dialect, which has become that of the French court and capital, though seemingly the former is more energetic and copious. Our early poets, forming their style on Italian models, have also given denization to some words borrowed from that tongue which are now confounded with those of French derivation. But in truth the French itself owes as deep obligation to the Italian as ours does to theirs. Of this class, borrowed by us, possibly immediately from the Italian, is Rebuff, Pittance, and others.

To the Spanish, our tongue appears to owe some few direct obligations, in part perhaps originating from vicinity, when we possessed territory in the south of France.

The identity of our adverb much, and the Spanish mucho, has been observed. The term dismay is connected nearly, and only, with the Spanish desmayar, to faint. Delight is more near the Spanish deleyte, than to the modern French delices. Alcornoque, the cork tree, (Al being but the Arabic prefix,) must have produced our cork. The words ninny, booby, and Spanish Niño, a child, Bobo of the same meaning as the English word, can hardly be the result of accident. Mono, in its diminutive Monico, appears to have produced our monkey; Borzique, buskin; Rasgon, a fragment, and our rag, are probably allied. From Grana, scarlet, comes the term, dying in grain. From Firma, signature, the firm of a mercantile house: cargo, embargo, junto, are pure Spanish.

S. E.

ETYMOLOGICAL DISQUISITIONS.

AMONG the numerous metaphysical writers, who of late years have busied themselves in inquiries concerning the nature and functions of the human mind, few appear to me to have paid a degree of attention to the philosophy of language and the etymology of words commensurate to the importance of such inquiries as a means of analysing and obtaining a more correct knowledge of the operations of intellect. Etymology, as a celebrated writer expresses it, furnishes us with the genealogy of human ideas, and enables us to trace in the history of various languages, which have florished in different ages, the ever varying operations of thought, and the progressive improvements of science.

The ЕПЕА ПТЕPOENTA, or Diversions of Purley, published by the late John Horne Tooke, may be regarded as constituting nera in the history of philology. Although similar opinions to those advanced by him were often broached by other writers, and although his system received corroboration from the etymological dissertations of many preceding philologists, yet none have appeared to reason on such pure and unquestionable principles, nor to have illustrated their positions with such clear and so numerous examples as that celebrated writer. Before I became acquainted with his work, I had become very dissatisfied with the accounts of language given by the grammarians, and had formed a sort of crude notion that some more simple principle of grammar might be discovered than those already in being. I had even thought that our parts of speech might be reduced to two, namely, nouns and verbs; and that these might ultimately be reduced to one; in short, that all words were significant sounds manifesting certain actions of the human mind, and capable, by association and common consent, of exciting similar actions in others, for the useful purposes of communicating knowledge, establishing common feelings, commemorating and systematising ideas, and thus of promoting all those advantages of individual improvement which men derive from co-operation in civilised society. As I have not deviated from the opinions about philology which I very

early formed in the absence of grammatical and etymological knowledge, I consider the corroboration of them, by subsequent researches, and the labors of more able inquirers, as the surest confirmation of their truth.

Before I proceed to the inquiries which will constitute the subject of these memoirs, it may be expedient to offer some preliminary observations in explanation of the terms I may make use of from time to time, to express mental operations. For, in consequence of the imperfect nature of language, and the necessity frequently of making use of metaphorical allusions to express the operations of the mind, different writers have adopted terms so very various for expressing the same things, that the reader who is not conversant with writings of this sort, is very likely to be misled into a belief that many objects themselves are essentially different, which are in reality only communicated in different terms.

1

Among our metaphysicians who have written on the nature of the mind, some have made use of the words; 1st, Impression, to designate a fancied operation of external bodies on our organs of sense at their surface of the impropriety of this term I say nothing at present; 2nd, Perception, to express the knowledge which the mind obtains of the material objects. This term being derived from per through, and capio I receive, is well calculated to express the popular notion that the mind receives the impressions of external objects through the medium of the organs But neither of these terms expresses, in my opinion, the mind's knowledge of the object. They relate only to a theory of the mode of obtaining it; and many of those who have made use of them, seem to me, when speaking of perception, to have proceeded on the supposition that the mind was a passive recipient, and that knowledge consisted in the arrival at the mind of the impressions of objects communicated through the organs of sense. But as many things in the history of ideas contradict this system, and as it is wholly at variance with the theory of sensation which I have adopted, I have thought proper to subjoin, for the benefit

of sense.

It may not be wholly irrelevant to remind the reader that the word through or thorough always signify passage; J. H. Tooke derives it from A. S. Đơn, and M. G. thairh, and supposes door to come from the same word.

See in. T. 4to. vol. i. p. 337.