Hermann. Ce dernier, dans ses deux éditions des Idiotismes Grecs (voy. Idiot. Première édit. p. 787. et seconde édit. p. 822.), dit, multò minùs, ut construi optativus cumy possit, intelligi poterit. Dans la première édit., l'illustre M. Hermann propose τε καὶ ἔχοντάς τι ξυγγνώμης, εἶεν ; cet έχοντας est correction gratuite : j'ai eu l'honneur d'en faire la remarque à M. Hermann (voy. mes Idiot. Grecs, seconde édit. p. 173. Lettre à M. Hermann.) M. Hermann, dans sa seconde édit. p. 822. renonce à sa correction exovras, propose (scribendum videtur, dit ce savant: formule de modestie a remarquer par les écoliers de M. Hermann) TexaÌ ÉXOVTÉS TI Euyyróμns elev, puis traduit, si non omni veniâ indigni, esto (i. e. οὐ κελεύῳ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τυχεῖν ξυγγνώμης) si id civitati non utile videatur; pour moi, je penserais que les personnages distingués, ci-dessus nommés, se trompent, ainsi que Thomas Magister; et qu'il faut traduire : si je démontre (îv åñopývw), que les Mytiléniens sont coupables, je ne demanderai pas pour cela leur mort, si elle nous est inutile; et s'ils pouvaient être dignes de quelque clémence (ŽV TE EXOVTÉS TL §. elev), je ne solliciterais pas leur pardon, si le parti de le clémence n'était pas utile à l'état. Cette locution de Thucydide est mise au nombre des ära pnlévтa, et des constructions inconnues aux écrivains exacts et purs. Pour moi, je verrais dans l'écrivain qui l'employe une preuve de goût et de logique : et je préférerais elev, au lieu de o que le savant M. Douxas met dans sa scholie. Après avoir cité deux passages, où Lucien employe avec l'optatif, Thomas ajoute ἀλλ ̓ οὐ δεῖ ζηλοῦν τὸ ἅπαξ ῥηθέν. Mais comment, à la suite de trois exemples, dans lesquels je comprends les deux de Lucien, Thomas persiste-t-il à traiter la locution elev dänak pylèv, locution une seule fois employée. Thomas et ses adhérents se rendraient-ils, si on leur citait un quatrième exemple encore d'un classique du premier ordre? Oui, sans doute. Eh bien! je vais remporter cette petite victoire; car Hérodote, 4. 196. 2. donne, ἢν μὲν φαινήται σ. α. οχ. τ. φ. ἀπαλλάσσονται· ἦν δὲ μὴ εἴη ἄξιος, κ. τ. λ. L'y pantai d'Hérodote, ne répond-il pas à merveille à l' ἂν ἀποφήνω de Thuc. ; et ἂν εἴη d'Hérodote à l' ἂν εἶεν de Thucydide? Ce parallélisme servira à prouver, entre autres choses, l'exactitude de la version, elev, esto, proposée par M. Hermann. J'invite à nouvel examen les illustres savans d'Allemagne, qui soutiennent une doctrine bien différente de la mienne. Leur sentiment refera ma croyance. 355 LETTERS ON THE ANCIENT BRITISH No. III. [Continued from No. XXXV. p. 112.] LETTER V. LATIN. AFTER having examined several languages, whose connexion with the Cornish is less evident, it is pleasing to meet with one to which it is intimately allied. Its affinity to the Latin is particularly striking; as far, at least, as respects words and derivations.. Many of these are much disguised; and, perhaps, in a philological question like this, it is better that they should be so, as it leaves a presumption that they are either of very ancient adoption in Cornish, or rather, that as well as the Latin, it took them from some common source, and afterwards appropriated and modified them according to the national inflection and pronunciation. I have already expressed myself in favor of the Celtic origin of Latin; though, from a number of concurrent causes, it has retained less of it than the British dialects. Exclusive of the argument to be derived from the primeval language of the descendants of Japheth having been but one, the early history of Italy furnishes us with abundant matter for speculation. The country north of the Po was conquered and peopled by Celtic colonies, and Rome itself was often a sufferer from the irruptions of the Gauls. Is it then astonishing, that when the several nations in Italy were afterwards coalesced under the name of Romans, the Celtic, the Eolian Greek, and the Etruscan, should have constituted prominent features in the new language? It was impossible that it should happen otherwise; and I may add, that this very philological peculiarity affords us one of the best indirect confirmations of the truth of the early history of Italy. It is, however, necessary to use some discrimination in examining the Latin, which is intermixed with the ancient language of Cornwall. As there are the strongest grounds to suppose that the Cornish did not exist in a separate state from the other British dialects, till after the Roman evacuation of the island, it must necessarily contain some of the Latinity of very different periods. Provincialisms might have existed in Cornwall from the remotest ages; but it was only after they had much increased, that they could become entitled to form a distinct language. It is, therefore, in the distinction of those different periods of Latinity, that the difficulty principally consists. When a language is allied to any foreign one, it is in consequence of either a common origin, of commerce, of colonisation, of intermarriages, of conquest, or of religion. All these causes, at different times, have had a decided influence on the structure of the Cornish dialect. It affords, however, something like a chronological scale, by which the era of the introduction of any particular Latin appellatives may be ascertained. The most numerous class of Latin words in Cornish, are those which I shall take to be derived from one common origin. The criteria I employ to distinguish them are, that they are much disguised, and are expressive of objects found in even the rudest states of society, and which must necessarily have had names long before the Roman invasion of Britain. Thus we have, Brawd, pater; Choar, soror; (Italian, suora,) De, dies; Ffan, fovea; Guest, vestis; Gwer, viridis ; Kaff, cavus; Maur, major; Porth, portus; and Tracth, tractus. These words are of the same origin as their Latin synonyms, and yet they designate objects so simple, that they must have been so called long before the natives either experienced the advantages of Roman commerce, or were annexed as a province to their empire. They are also so much disguised, and are so destitute of any thing like a classical modification, that it cannot be for a moment supposed that these terms were adopted from the conquerors, and that those which were previously in use, were suffered to become obsolete. These are, therefore, the principal reasons that make me refer so many apparent Latin words in the Cornish vocabularies to a Celtic origin. The second class is that of expressions, on which there is something like internal evidence that they were introduced in this British dialect during the Roman intercourse. Exclusive of any reference to the trade which was carried on with the Romans from the coast of Cornwall, long before their conquest of Britain, their sovereignty lasted for several centuries, during which they worked the Cornish mines; and even now, several places in Cornwall, with the epithet of Ruan, still offer some faint attestation of the presence of that people. It is therefore not surprising, that in those circumstances the language of the Cornish should have borrowed more largely from it than that of the Welsh, whose country, of difficult access, and of agricultural and mineral poverty, discouraged the invaders from attempting any permanent settlement. But it was not so with Cornwall, whose valuable tin stimulated the avarice of the Roman adventurer, and became the reward of victory. The Roman jurisprudence, one of whose severest animadversions was to punish some criminals by making them labor in the mines (damnari ad metalla), had also a tendency to diffuse the Latin language. Many of the unhappy beings thus doomed to perpetual exile were probably from the continental provinces of the empire, and knew no other language than Latin. Individuals thus situated, and hopeless of ever being restored to their country, would assimilate themselves to the natives, to whom they would in return impart something of foreign speech and customs. It is rather to this operation of the Roman law, than to any other cause, that I attribute the first connexion of the Jews with the tin mines of Cornwall. The ancient working of mines must have been different from that in present use, or the labor required from the miners must have been excessive, as otherwise the punishment of laboring there could not have been so dreadful, or reserved as the requital of the most atrocious crimes. It is well known to us in Cornwall, that the miners of the present day, though their stated labor may be severe, have much leisure to tempt them to irregular habits, and that many of them prefer this kind of life to the more constant employ in husbandry.' But it is the mind which is punished, when the law visits the crimes of any individual, and by depriving him of his liberty, consigns him to any particular spot 1 Does not this preference arise from higher wages? Besides, they are not in a state of slavery, and forbidden superas evadere ad auras, like the Roman criminals.-ED. or employment. When this last is honorable, or at least not disgraceful, it is sought after, as is the case with those who voluntarily settle in distant colonies; when, to have been sent thither by the course of law would have been thought an intolerable evil, though the labor of the exile might be but slight, and the prospect. of retrieving his character and circumstances be considerable. If, then, our modern system of transportation is thus terrible, it must have probably been from the same principle, that a condemnation to labor in the Roman mines was productive of so large a portion of misery. But to return from this short digression.-The words which I apprehend to have been immediately derived from the Latin by Roman commerce and conquest, are such as the following:Achesa, accuso; Bresych, brassica; Cusyll, consilium; Dampnys, damno; Fryns, princeps; Kebister, capistrum; Oberur, operarius; Padelh, patella; and Thistrewy, destruo. The third and last description of Latin words in the Cornish, are those which have been introduced into it by the Christian religion, and a few others on different subjects, which are not to be found in any of the classical authors, but are the produce of a later and barbarous age. The greater part of those religious terms are Greek. The very subject to which these terms refer, evidently ascertains that they could not have been found in any of the British dialects till a comparatively recent period. The Britons having no terms of their own expressive of the mysteries of a religion, which was first preached among them by foreign missionaries, naturally adopted, with some corruptions, the very words by which they were designated in the language of those instructors; and indeed even our modern English abounds in French and other foreign expressions, which have been retained as the appellatives of objects, which were unknown among us till their introduction from other countries. As this subject leads to very important inferences, I will resume it in another place. At present it will be sufficient to give you lists of the principal Cornish words under each of the three classes; for I have purposely passed over many, and the disguise of more has concealed them from my researches. Some are so disguised that I could not discover them, till after a second or third examination of the voca |