Hence also the Lat. verbs in Sco.

Ad, the common A. S. termination; variously written ed, id, od, ud; is now the common English termination ed.* From the Lat. we have some words ending in id, as hum-id; and some in ude, as fortitude. The meaning is-add: and the force of it, to show or denote an addition or adjunction.

The Latin terminations at, et, it, constituting the third person singular of their verbs, is formed by affixing the article or pronoun, O-TE, OT-E, OT, (Lat. id); which is used with a meaning equivalent to that of our own article the; and the force of it is to denote the addition or adjunction, the connexion of the agent, spoken of, with the act. The Sanscrit has the same pronoun in the third person, and the same ending to the third person of their verbs.‡

These terminations of the verb, with the addition of the article oç, us, compose the past participle, at-us . . . whence our terminations ate. . . .

The A. S. and English termination of the third person of the verb th, seems to be the article, the.

And. We have very sparingly supplied ourselves from the Latin participle in dus; which is formed by the addition of d to the termination 'n; and the further affix of the article, us. The d, appears to have the force of the Gr, da, and the whole termination to denote To Sεov, that which ought to be. It is called by Tooke, the Official Passive Adjective.

Our superlative adjectives are formed by the suffix, est, which appears to be composed of es—ed, contracted into est, and to have the double force of take, add, in super-lation to the simple adjective.

Al. We have a great stock of words ending in al, from the Latin alis; of which Scaliger says, Qualitatem consistentem significat: and he proceeds to illustrate;—

Triumphalis; qui ex triumpho gradum adeptus est in civitate: Furialis, furiis captus: Mortalis, eadem ratione dicitur, qui morte affectus est: nam quod ad aptitudinem translatum sit, hoc usus occupavit. Cæterum de mortuo primum sic sunt locuti, Mortalis fuit: deinde etiam quum ad viventes respicerent: propterea quod essent ejusdem naturæ, eosdem quoque mortales vocavere: Sic enim capitale crimen dixere quod capite lui meritum esset: quo significato etiam quæ nondum vocata essent in judicium intellexere.

So much for the usage of this termination, but whence came it? The common termination Ble, Lat. Bilis, has been derived from the Goth. and A.S. Abal, robur, vis; our own Able.

* See Ing. antea,

§

Hence the very recent Deontology.

+ See Dr. Prichard, p. 137.

See the Dictionary.

+ Id. p. 95.

But Ab-al consists of two literal roots, and from the latter must have been derived, this termination is al-is perhaps immediately from the Latin Alis, the ancient mode of writing Alius, Gr. allos of which L is the literal root, as it is also of the Gr. oλ-oç, English All. And, thus, this termination will likewise denote an addition, an adjunction; an appertaining to, a relation.*

It has been already insisted that this organic sound 'm' has given to various tongues and in various forms the pronominal me--that this pronoun, appropriated to the first person, is the terminating syllable, in Greek and Sanscrit verbs; and also of Lat. tenses in am.

It has also been stated that the Sanscrit pronoun of the first person in the nominative case has the double force of I and me; and that, in the accusative case, it has the reduplicate force of me me. The Eolic auue has the same double force: So has the Goth. imma, though appropriated to the third person,-in English Him.

αμμε

Him, them, and whom, are formed by prefixing the pronoun he, the article the, and the pronoun who, to the first portion of the Gothic; which then is deemed a mere termination. But the Gothic im, in the pronominal imma, and the Lat. Hom, in the nominal homo, are the same literal root: And him, i. e. he-im; them, i. e. the or thei-im, whom, or who-im, may be explained he, or said—man, the or they-men, who or what--man or men: the appropriation to case being made for distinction's sake. Scaligert derives Homo from oμ-wc; because man is-animal sociale. Hom-o, (as man also,) is a general term, applied to both sexes; and is probably so applied because, animal parentale; bearing, bringing forth, giving life. The Latin Hum-us, has the same origin.

Om or um―in the Latin E-om or e-um, ill-om, or illum, quom or qu-em, or qu-um—is the same literal root, as im, em, om, in our own pronouns.

The Sanscrit pronoun, Tu-am or twam, of the second person is composed of Tu, Lat. Tu, English Thou, and am; which latter is also found in various cases of the different numbers. In Latin it is Tu-met. The Sanscrit pronoun of the third person is T'am.

N.--This organic sound or literal root is a very abundant source of terminations in different languages.

En.-As av with the Greeks, so (says Wachter) an, on, en, apud majores nostros, is the

termination of the infinitive.

The A.S.

an,

the D. and Ger. en, are the English en, also antiently written un, constituting

the noun adjective and the plural of nouns; and always meaning --union, adunion, junction, adjunction, addition: as wooden, treen.

The A. S. an, Gr, ev, Lat. un, with the article, variously written, as, es, is, os, us have formed the terminations an-us, hum-an-us; en-us, terr-en-us: in-us, can-in-us: Gr. γη-ιν-ος, earth-en, Evλ-w-oc, wooden.

The Lat. An-us, en-us, form by contraction the Lat. participial termination ans, ens: and from the neuter plural of these, in tia, are our terminations, ance, ence; anciently written ants, ents. An, with the additional termination ed, forms by contraction and, the A. S. participial termination, for which we now use ing.*

It is worthy of remark, in passing, that it is the practice of our language, to employ, en— either prefixed or postfixed, and sometimes both, to augment, or add to the force of words, as to light, to light-en, to en-light-en.

And this termination en, with ed, and ig, our modern y, are the three, which constitute the English adjectives. The terminations, full, ous, ly, &c. are compounds.

R.-Wachter observes that the German termination er, is, in nominibus officiorum, deemed by some not to be a mere termination, but the same as the Lat. Vir. Camb. ur; and that this conjecture is favoured by the fact that many nouns ending in er, do in various dialects also end in Man; as in Dutch Schipper, Schipp-man, in English, Plower, plow-man. To this same source he also refers the Lat. termination arius, in triarius;—or, in orator, in which (he thinks) they seem to denote man. Er, or, in the Ger. Zund-er, English Tind-er: Lat. Splend-or, Cand-or, he determines to be-simplex terminatio. In the formation of comparatives (he adds) no particle is more fit than er;-nam er, priscis significat ante; and ante, (before), is said not only of time and place, but of quality.

In all these instances, R is the literal root; denoting anteriority, priority, in space or time; the prime person or thing, (male or female) the act-or, agent, or acting cause and in comparison of adjectives (also antiently written re), priority, superiority, precedence.

In Danish, Er is equivalent to the English am; and in that language it is the termination of the infinitive, corresponding to the Lat. Re: (Re-is, res, a thing). Ar, er, ir, or, ur, with the addition of the article, form the terminations, ar-is, as famili-aris;-arius, prim-arius, orius, suas-orius, ur-us, futu-rus; whence our common terminations ary, ory, ure.

Scaliger considers the Lat. term. aris, orius to be similar to that in al; but to arius, he affixes more force, as Sagittarius, one who knows how to use use Sagitta.

The Lat. part. ter. in r-us, is very properly named future, to come, and hither also may be referred the verbs in urio, commonly called Desiderative.

S.—It has been stated that the meaning of the literal root S is Take; The English As, Ger. Es, Lat. Is or us, Gr. os, are articles, and equivalent to The or That. As a termination es, has the force in English of take: and of various consequences of taking, sc. of taking, numerically, so as to effect plurality,-and thus it forms the plural of nouns : of taking possessively, so as to appropriate the possession,-and thus, it forms the possessive case of nouns; which Wallis calls the possessive adjective: of taking, or attaching, the agent to the act,—and thus appropriating the personality of the agent: and hence, further it forms the third person singular of our verbs.

The Latin has in various cases, and in both Numbers, this same literal root, for the terminating syllable as differently written, as the English, German, Latin, and Greek articles. The pronoun of the second person is in Greek Nominative Σv, and the termination of the person of Sanscrit, Greek, and Lat. Verbs is S.

second

The Latin has Se for a pronoun of the third person, to which for the sake of emphasis they affixed Me-t.

The Greek article oç, Lat. is, or us, reduplicated, forms the adjective termination os-us, English ose and by this reduplication is denoted, as Scaliger* has remarked, qualitatem sub erressu quodam, intentionem qualitatis.

I have now arrived at the close of all that I consider it necessary to say in support of my second position.

1. I have then endeavoured to establish ;-and I must confess a persuasion to be very strongly impressed upon my own mind, that I have not endeavoured in vain :--in the first place : that the simple, articulate, organic sounds, of which written letters are the signa visibilia, are intelligible, indivisible sounds; that they are words, that those words still subsist, (not in one language only,) and that used alone (I mean without prefix or suffix) they retain their primitive, intrinsic meaning. This was my first step.

2. My second is, to establish that these words, upon which I impose the name of literal roots, are used as prefixes, and suffixes; and that, when so used, they retain also this primitive intrinsic meaning.

De Caus. L. 4 C. 93

But the question forces itself upon us, to what are they prefixed,-to what are they suffixed? The answer is obvious and indisputable :-to themselves, or to some one or more of their own family.

Here then we have so many literal roots, each in single position, each apposed at the beginning,—in the middle,―at the end :-Additur in initio, additur in medio, additur in fine ; says the most learned J. Gerard Vossius, who himself only repeated what he had collected from others, and whose dogmata (I do not use the word individiously) others have continued till this day to repeat.

These literal roots then must be the elements of which all the words in all the languages, of all the inhabitants of the earth, must be, and have been composed :—there are no other: And if it were not possible to produce one single syllable of proof in addition ;-it is even from these premises an inference of sound reason, that each and every of these literal roots was, in the primeval formation of speech,* used, wherever used, whether as prefix, interfix or suffix,— whether in initio, in medio, or in fine,—as an indivisible intelligible sound, in its original intrinsic meaning.

I say, the primeval formation of speech, and I say so with precaution,-for it cannot be doubted that in time, the cause for usage would be forgotten, and yet that the usage would be itself preserved. Analogy, euphony with other reasons or presumed reasons, would become auxiliary to the perpetuation of a custom, which, at its first rise, and during its early progress, would be of indispensable necessity for the common purposes of speech.

My task then, I will venture to affirm, is completed. The third proposition is a legitimate corollary to the two former; and a practical exposition of it would demand an entire work.

The principles of Philology, it is obvious to remark, which are unfolded in the preceding pages, must, in the peculiar province at least of English Lexicography, be considered as exoteric doctrines: they are intended, as they are suited, only for the scholar: by him they must be investigated, and tried, and judged: by him they must be subjected to the rigorous test of experiment.

* "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." Genesis, ii. 1.