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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    C ^5 ] tlie donor, an Imperfection which, in its groffnefs, rather deferves the name of rank Barbarifm, than of that fublime fimplicity of lliie, which, accommo- .dating itfelf to the plained underdandings, would only be a recommendation the more. While the gift was bedowing, it would have been furely as cheap to Omnipotence to bedow it in the .highed degree of perfection, as under fuch a manifed difadvantage. Another fuppodtion, and which would render the gift of tongues needlefs^ as to the appearance of the Gofpels in Greek, is, that the barbarous Gallo-Greek, in which they are now extant, was the common language or Lingua-Franca of Judcea. This notion has been darted and defended by fome men. of literature ; but certainly the abfurdity of it is fo glaring as even to deferve compalTion. They might as well aver, that the Arabic was the com¬ mon talk of the lower fort of inhabitants along the coads of Sulfex and Kent. The didance is indeed fomewhat greater ; but the affinity of the Lan¬ guages not a jot lefs than between the Hebrew and 'Greek, with the farther confiderationsj'that of all the people on earth, the Jewifh nation was the lead likely to admit or harbour among its fubjeCls, fnch a foreign corruption ; befides that it is precjfely with Gallicifms, and not Hebraifms, that the Gofpels are interlarded.' It was then mod probably owing to the learned Conventual Societies, that, while the original, infpired writings have been fo many of them lod, we have the mod valuable part, the fenfe of them, ’ preferved by tranfiators, who, not pretending to in- fpiration, gave it to us in the bed manner they could; and with fuch a degree of authenticity as has received the fanClion of the Church in the earlied times, after the edition of them.
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