A treatise on the study of antiquities as the commentary to historical learning, sketching out a general line of research / [Thomas Pownall].

  • Thomas Pownall
Date:
1782
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the study of antiquities as the commentary to historical learning, sketching out a general line of research / [Thomas Pownall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hy the various inhabitants of this earth, may feem : yet when the powders of enuiir ciation, as they exift and are capable of being exerted, are analyfed, they will be found all to be confined to, and circum- fcribed wkhin, the fame elements of fpeech ; and thefe elements alfo, how- ever infinite the words of fpeech may feem, when refoLved into their primary and indivifible founds of voice, will be found not to exceed' fixteen. I fhall not here enter further into the aftuai analyfis of this fubjeft ; as No. I. of the appen- flix is an exprefs treatife of this fubjedl, confidered as onejDf the defiderata in the ftudy of antiquities. 1 fliall only obferve that this rnethod of refolutipn and com- pofition of the elements of fpeech did adlually lead in, the fixteenth century to many difeoveries in the etymon, and ortho- graphy of the dead languages. The truely philolbphic etymolbgifts have, in many inftances, ‘ traced back the deviations in different dialedls of the fame language, and the variations of different languages, through fources which lay almoft buried under the rulnes of time, fo as to dif- cover the original root whence all deriv^- ed. The difeoveries made by thefe meri- torious labours in this line of refearch have led to the elucidation of the hifiory of man
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