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will, I hope, be abundantly proved, before we come to the close. In respect to the etymologies, which I have already offered and considered, I have all along annexed the histories of the persons and places spoken of, in order to ascertain my opinion concerning them. But the chief proof, as I have before said, will result from the whole; from an uniform series of evidence, supported by a fair and uninterrupted analogy.

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OF

ETYMOLOGY,

AS IT HAS BEEN TOO GENERALLY HANDLED.

Αλλα θεοι των μεν μανίην απετρέψατε γλώσσης,
Εκ δ ̓ ὁσιων ςοματων καθαρην οχετεύσατε πηγήν.
Και σε, πολύμνηση, λευκώλενε παρθενε, μουσα,
Αντομαι, ὧν θεμις εσιν εφημεριοισιν ακέειν.
Πεμπε παρ' ευσεβίης ελαεσ' ευήνιον άρμα.

EMPEDOCLES.

T may appear invidious to call to account men of learning, who have gone before me in inquiries of this nature, and to point out defects in their writings: but it is a task which I must, in some degree, take in hand, as the best writers have, in my opinion, failed fundamentally in these researches. Many, in the wantonness of their fancy, have yielded to the most idle surmises; and this to a degree of licentiousness, for which no learning nor ingenuity can atone. It is therefore so far from being injurious, that it appears absolutely necessary to point out the path

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they took, and the nature of their failure; and this, that their authority may not give a sanction to their mistakes; but, on the contrary, if my method should appear more plausible, or more certain, that the superiority may be seen upon comparing; and be proved from the contrast.

The Grecians were so prepossessed with a notion of their own excellence and antiquity, that they supposed every antient tradition to have proceeded from themselves. Hence their mythology is founded upon the grossest mistakes: as all extraneous history, and every foreign term, is supposed by them to have been of Grecian original. Many of their learned writers had been abroad; and knew how idle the pretensions of their countrymen were. Plato in particular saw the fallacy of their claim. He confesses it more than once yet in this article nobody was more infatuated. His Cratylus is made up of a most absurd system of etymology. " Herodotus expressly says, that the Gods of Greece came in great measure from Egypt. Yet Socrates is by Plato in this treatise made to derive Artemis from το αρτεμες, integritas: Poseidon from ποσι δεσμον,

$7 Herodotus. 1. 2. c. 4. and 1. 2. c. 52.

Επειτα δε χρονο Πολλα διελθοντος επύθοντο (οι Έλληνες) εκ της Αιγυπτε απικομενα τα ονόματα των Θεών.

fetters to the feet: Hestia from ovia, substance and essence: Demeter, from didóvoa ws μήτης, distributing as a mother: Pallas from aλ, to vibrate, or dance: Ares, Mars, from appev, masculum, et virile: and the word Theos, God, undoubtedly the Theuth of Egypt, from 0, to run 58 Innumerable derivations of this nature are to be found in Aristotle, Plato, "9 Heraclides Ponticus, and other Greek writers. There is a maxim laid down by the scholiast upon Dionysius; which I shall have occasion often to mention. 60 El Cagbagor то ονομία, ου χρη ζητειν Ἑλληνικὴν

58 5ο δαίμων from δαημων ; Απολλων from ή όμου πολησις· Διονυσος quasi δίδενυσος from διδοι and oivoς. and oινoς from οιεσθαι. Κρόνος, quasi χρονω κορος. Τηθύν, το ηθουμενον—with many more. Plato in Cratylo.

Ægyptus παρα το αιγας πιαίνειν. Eustath. in Odyss. 1. 4. p. 1499.

59 Poseidon, serta dny. Tisiphone, Torwv Qwvn, Athene quasi abaváros. Hecate from xator centum. Saturnus, quasi sacer, 8. See Heraclides Ponticus, and Fulgentii Mythologia. See the Etymologies also of Macrobius. Saturnalia. 1. 1. c. 17. p. 189.

Μεσαι" quasi με εσαι.

p. 480.

Plutarch de Fraterno Amore. v. 2.

Δι' εύνοιαν καὶ Φιλαδελφίαν.

Πασιφάη, δια το πασι φαίνειν τα μάντεια. Plutarch. Agis and Cleomenes. v. 2. p. 799.

60 Eustathius on Dionysius: meginŸNOIS.

Ut Josephus recte observat, Græcis scriptoribus id in more est, ut peregrina, et barbara nomina, quantum licet, ad Græcam

ετυμολογίαν αυτό. If the term be foreign, it is idle to have recourse to Greece for a solution. It is a plain and golden rule, posterior in time to the writers above, which, however, common sense might have led them to have anticipated, and followed: but it was not in their nature.

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The person who gave the advice was a Greek, and could not for his life abide by it. It is true, that Socrates is made to say something very like the above. Εννοω ὅτι πολλα οι Ελληνες ονοματα,

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άλλως τε και δι ύπο τοις Βαρβαροις οικεντες, παρά των

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τις ζήτοι ταυτα Ἑλληνικην φωνην, ὡς εοικότως κειται, αλλά μη κατ' εκείνην, εξ ἧς το ονομα τυγχανες τον, οισθα ότι αποροι αν. very sensible that the Grecians in general, and especially those who are subjects to foreigners, have received into their language many exotic terms:

formam emolliant : sic illis Ar Moabitarum est Apɛoжoλç; Botsra, Bupoa; Akis, Ayxes; Astarte, Argoxgx; torrens Kison, Xesuppos των Κισσων; torrens Kedron, Χειμαρρος των Κεδρων; et talia ώσει HOVIC. Bochart. Geog. Sacra. 1. 2. c. 15. p. 111.

We are much indebted to the learned father Theophilus of Antioch he had great knowledge; yet could not help giving way to this epidemical weakness. He mentions Noah as the same as Deucalion, which name was given him from calling people to righteousness: he used to say, devre naλe; iμas ô Osos; and from hence, it seems, he was called Deucalion. Ad Antol. I. 3.

"Plato in Cratylo. p. 409.

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