different languages, expressive of divers passions of the mind, strongly corroborates this assertion. A superficial account of the etymologies of the words expressive of mental dejection and timidity, will constitute the subject of the present paper. I hope to proceed, in future numbers, to examine others, and to a closer etymology of the real import of the words, together with those which designate 1st, different parts of the body, 2d, different functions of the animal, and 3d, different operations of the mind. MEAATXOAIA, from whence our word melancholy is evidently derived, from péλas, black, and xóλ, bile; must have been founded on a notion of the bad state of the biliary function, connected with the depressed mental feeling. Whether the secretions in this disease were really black, or only deranged, is uncertain; for the word péλas was used to denote any thing vile, dark, obscure, &c. quia (as Scapula asserts) talia sunt atra. But, however, the nomination of this disease from actual black bile will receive confirmation from the physical history of those diseases vulgarly called malæna and hæmatamesis. The Latin melancholia, the Spanish melancolia &c. come from the same source. ATRABILIUS, from ater and bilis, a Latin word of the same import; whence the French manie atrabilaire, the Italian atrabiliare, &c. 'TIOXONAPIAZIE. This word, the modern hypochondriasis, also refers to disorders of that viscus, which lie úzò xóvdgız under the cartilages of the ribs, namely, the liver. ΛΕΥΚΗΠΑΤΙΑΣ, from λευκος and ήπαρ, was a term frequently applied by the Greeks to people of cowardly and malicious minds, and such as exhibited imbecility and weakness of intellect; to which our vulgar epithet white-livered, applied to similar characters, seems well to correspond. This word may, perhaps, refer to the secretiones albæ, which, during the suspended functions of a disordered liver, "minime a bile colorantur," or else it may signify a flaccid or limpid liver, wasted away, discolored; Asuxos, as is well known, being often used for limpidus, as in Homer, we have suxov owe; and Callimachus, in the hymn to Jupiter, writes λευκότατος ποταμῶν, which we must render limpid, and not white or frothy. Scapula says, under the word "Haag, Aiunt quorundam hepati vitium quoddam accidere, quod eos timidos reddat. Ejus autem indicium vitiati pallor est, qui tales timidos arguit. Refer to Erasm. Chil. 1 Λευκηπατίας and Μελαγχολία may seem at first sight to express the same effect by a contrast of terms, namely, white and black. While, however, I have rather preferred the interpretation of piñas by bad, evil, corrupt; and λeuxòs, by limpid, soluble, fluent; yet I cannot omit one curious observation on black and white, namely, that these words are said to be derived from a common source; and that this etymology of both expresses privation of color, and has the same root as blot and bleak. H. Tooke derives white from hpathjan, spumare, beyond which I have not yet traced it; but am preparing for an etymological account of the names for color for the next number of this Journal, to which I refer the reader. Fegatoso, from fegato, the liver. A word applied, as I am told by the Italians, to a melancholy person; also to one" che ha nella faccia del ribollimento con pustule rosse preveniente da soverchio calore di sangue;" and in some comic representation, an Italian Jacques exclaims, "Io sono si miserabile, fegatoso, ed atrabiliare!" Schwartzgalig, signifying black gall or black bile; the German word for melancholy. The Dutch have Zwaasdgelig with the same meaning; and similar words may be found in other northern tongues." Jealousy. Some derive this from λos; but, improperly, I think. It seems either to come from yellow, giallo, and to represent the yellow and jaundiced look of a person laboring under this passion; which affects the liver and causes biliary obstruction and absorption of the fluid in which sense the epithet of green-eyed monster applied to this passion, and expressive of the absorption of green and vitiated bile, corroborates; or else to be derived from a common source with yellow, namely, geælgan, accendere, and to signify a burning passion, jecur ardens, a combustion of the internal parts, metaphorically alluded to by Juvenal in Sat. i. 45. Quid referam quantâ siccum jecur ardeat irâ. Quum populum gregibus comitum premit his spoliator, &c. And Horace, lib. i. carm. 25. Quum tibi flagrans amor et libido, Non sine questu. And in lib. iv. carm. 1. he commands Venus, Abi Quo blanda juvenum te revocant preces. Paulli, purpureis ales oloribus, Comessabere Maximi, Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum. But in lib. i. carm. 13. he has given us a most complete description of the symptoms of melancholy in its early stages, when induced by thwarted love, or some other trivial source of jealousy and disappointment, namely, 1st, a disordered liver, swelled and dense with bile not secreted into the duodenum: 2dly, the hypochondriac feelings, and loss of mental vigor: 3dly, the metastasis, or change of color in the face; now flushed, now pale: and 4thly, the flow of tears, often without assignable cause. Thus, Some more modern writers, yet impressed with the visceral nature of melancholy, have called it the spleen; as if, because they could find no other use for that viscus, they must needs give it one of their own. Others, de luded by the whimsical humoral pathology, have called this state of mind the vapors. VOL. IX. Cl. J. NO. XVII. I Quum tu, Lydia, Telephi Tunc nec mens mihi, nec color Quam lentis penitus macerer ignibus. The peevish and irascible tempers and feelings of many, who have nervous irritability from disorders of the liver, and which become a source of real and continual torment to themselves, are alluded to by Persius; who contrasts the trivial nature of maladies from external causes with those hypochondriacal feelings in Sat. v. verse 126. I, puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer, Atque hic quem ad strigiles scutica et metus egit herilis? I should like to see the etymology of names for these mental affections, in different oriental languages, investigated; for similar opinions to those advanced may be collected from the writings of much earlier authors. Jeremiah in Lament. ii. 11. says: 'Exov Év dánguoi di ὀφθαλμοί μου, ἐταράχθη ή καρδία μου, εξεχύθη εἰς τὴν γῆν ἡ δόξα μου, &c. Conf. Horat. Serni. 11. ii, 25. Ovid. Amor. v. &c. F. T. ILLUSTRATION OF ST. GREGORY'S EPITAPH ON ST. BASIL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. I EMBRACE an early opportunity of laying before your readers a discovery, which I lately made respecting one of Nazianzen's poems. In the second volume of this Father's works, p. 152. there is a poem with this inscription, Εἰς τὸν μέγαν Βασιλεῖον ἐπικήδια, εἴτε ἐπιτάφια. It is written in hexameters and pentameters; the two last of which are as follows: Γρηγόριος, Βασίλειε, τεῇ κονίῃ ἀνέθηκα Τῶν ἐπιγραμματίων τήνδε δυωδεκάδα. Although I became acquainted with this poem in 1803, and have frequently made it a subject of meditation since, I never understood, till lately, the concluding words. I knew that no epitaph on Basil, except this, was extant; and I could not bring anyself to believe that, while so many of Gregory's epigrams, or epitaphs, on inferior persons have been preserved, eleven to the memory of Basil could have been lost. One day, last week, as I was revolving it in my mind, the following thought suddenly occurred. Gregory may perhaps have written twelve epigrams on his friend, each consisting of four or six lines, like those, which he composed on Euphemius, Casarius, and others; and, after his death, some hasty inconsiderate transcriber may have blended them together, and made one poem of the whole. At first I was' charmed with the new idea, but I soon reflected that, if this had been the case, the name of Basil would have been mentioned at least twelve times; for it is an established canon, that, in an epitaph, the deceased must be spoken of by name; and from this rule Gregory never deviates. I immediately ran over the lines in my head, and was gratified on finding that Basil's name is mentioned exactly twelve times, I think I have said enough to convince any competent judge of the truth of my hypothesis. There is, however, another circumstance, which greatly strengthens it. About the middle of the poem there is a passage of six lines, wherein, not Gregory, but Basil is the speaker; and what he says has little or no connexion with the context. Surely there can be no doubt, that these six lines originally formed a distinct epigram. It may also be observed, that if the poem, as it now stands, had been one continued piece, the name of Basil would not have been so often, and so unnecessarily repeated. Thus I have made it evident, that Gregory consecrated twelve epigrams to the memory of his friend. Of these the first five contained six lines each; the four next contained four lines each; and the three last had two lines each; making in all fifty-two lines. It was once my intention to publish an edition of some of Gregory's poems, accompanied by notes. I earnestly wish that some scholar, more competent, and more fortunate, than myself, woula achieve what some circumstances did not permit me to attempt. No edition of these poems has been published for more than a hundred years; and all those, which are extant, abound with gross corruptions of the text. That of Aldus, although the first, is the best. 27 Dec. 1813. H. S. BOYD. LATIN INSCRIPTION. THE TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. HE accompanying Inscription has just made its appearance on a monument, erected by a few of his pupils, to the memory of the late Professor James Beattie, on the outside wall of St. Nicholas' Church, in this city. It is understood to be the composition of the Rev. Dr. William Lawrence Brown, Principal and Professor of Divinity in Marischal College, a name not unknown to the literary world, as a theologian and a poet.-The lamented Professor, whose talents it records, was alike eminent as a classical scholar, and a naturalist, and had but a few more years been granted him, would certainly have added not a little to the well earned fame of the name of Beattie.-By its insertion in the Classical Journal, therefore, you will oblige your constant Reader, Aberdeen, Nov. 18th, 1813. M. S JACOBI BEATTIE HIST NAT. ET CIV IN ACADEMIA MARISCHALLANA. ABRED PROFESSORIS W. HANC TABULAM DISCIPULI GRATI• MŒRENTES OBIIT IVTO OCTOBRIS DIE AN⚫ MDCCCXMO SI VIRTUS PIETAS. DOCTRINA EXTENDERE POSSENT SED PIETAS VIRTUS. DOCTRINA AD SIDERA TENDUNT ACCIPE CŒLICOLAS SI TALIA MUNERA TANGUNT |