Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland].

  • John Cleland
Date:
1768
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 2 19 ] point, with feeing Druidifm every where ; iny an- iwer is plain, and drawn from the (tri6i: truth of things, coolly, and clear of all the confidence of enthufiafm. Nothing is more true, than that, treating of the an- tient times, and eveftigating words and things from their primitive fource, I fee Druidifm almofl: every where efpecially on this iiland, and diffufed through it in every thing worth notice. With good reafon too I believe it extended of old much farther, even over almoft the whole Northern hemifphere. Not only then the greateft and the moll; curious of the Gre¬ cian, Roman, and Britifh antiquities have demon- flrably their fource in it, but many of the mofl ef- fential parts of the prefent conftitution in church and hate have manifeftly their foundations in it : fo that, if it be true, that, to know things rightly and folidly, they muff be traced to their origin, w^e have, furely, hitherto, not taken the beft road, in feeking that origin, every where but where it was to be found, precifely at home, in Britain itfelf. But fuch is the waywardnefs of' human kind ; ** Tranfvokt in medio poilta, Sc fugientia captatd’ Hor#