he ventures on foreign languages with a defign of tracing their connection with his own or with each other, he must be distinguifhed by accomplishments far fuperior to thofe which commonly fall to the lot of the linguift. He must understand the hiftory of the country whofe language he proposes to illuftrate, the invafions it has undergone, and its connections with the neighbouring ftates. He will then have to examine the languages of thee different nations, not only in their purity, but in their deflections and corruptions, whether they are the effect of time, and appear plainly in writers of different ages, or are to be traced only in the converfation of different ranks, and particularly in that of the commercial claffes, who, from the nature of their occupation, are most likely to communicate their phraseology to the furrounding nations. To elucidate the etymology of technical and fcientific words, he must be accurately verfed in the hiftory of the arts and fciences, in the order in which different nations received them from the first inventors, and the improvements made at different æras, which have gradually introduced an acceffion of new words. In afcending to ancient languages he will often be ftopped by a language no longer known. In this cafe he can only fearch for fuch veftiges of it as commerce or conqueft may have introduced into languages now in being. Above all, he must know when the found is to be depended on, and when the fenfe. To ascertain the former with precifion, he ought to poffefs a kind of knowledge which in fome languages indeed cannot be obtained, the knowledge, we mean, of the ancient pronunciation. To afcertain the latter, he muft trace the various changes which words undergo by compofition, metaphorical acceptation, and tranfmiffion from one language to another, an employment of itself fufficiently perplexing, but which, like every part of this great undertaking, can never be entered on with fuccefs, without a philofophical acquaintance with the origin and progrefs of language in general, and long habits of cool analogical reafoning. For it behoves the fcholar, who would ferve the caufe of real learning, instead of haftily acquiefcing even in his moft favourite conjectures, to fubmit them repeatedly to the impartial fcrutiny of realon; to fee that they are fupported by better authority than mere fuppofitions, however numerous and plaufible; to take care that a derivation, which is barely poffible, be never preferred to another which has probability on its fide; and to guard against every derivation of the elements of a compound word from different languages, unlefs the foreign word which is fuppofed to enter into the compofition can be proved to have been previously naturalized. Had thefe principles been more generally adopted by etymologifts, we should not have feen fo many wild and fanciful at Sf 4 tempts tempts to torture fenfe and language, and wreft every thing to the fupport of a beloved hypothefis. The world would indeed have loft the amufement of feeing the Gods and Heroes of Pagan mythology converted, by an etymological metamorphofis, into Patriarchs at one time, into Celts + or Swedes at another, and under the hands of one daring adventurer, into a kind of allegorical orrery §. Whether the work of Mr. Vieyra be of this kind, or deferve rather to be claffed among those which elucidate the theory of language, and the philofophy of the human mind; which give precifion to definition, and, in fome inftances, perfpicuity to hiftory, is a question which the felection of a few examples may enable our readers to refolve. From the Hebrew, or Arabic, dies, and Deus, our Author tells us, is derived Jumula, the name of a Lapponian idol, fignifying Deus dies, the inhabitants worshipping, as a God, the returning day, after fo long and comfortless an abfence. Hercules is derived by Mr. Vieyra from the Hebrew 718 quafi illuminans omnia. Hercules, he tells us, was the name of the fun among the Tyrians, and in fupport of his derivation quotes the following paffage from Macrobius, Sat. 1. 1. c. 20. Hercules quid aliud eft quam aëris gloria? Que porro eft aëris, nifi folis illuminatio? The Latin cogito, and the Greek nyeoμzi, he deduces from the Arabic bodj, intellectus, ingenium. Tamefis, and Thames, from the Arabic tâma, domavit. Nates, from the Arabic agi nautat, of the fame fignification, quia, fcilicet, suspensæ ac pendulae funt.' Bog, from the Arabic & bokat, locus depressior ubi flagnat aqua. Bog-houfe from the Perfian oŲ bagah, latrina. To duck, from the Arab. dâc, depreffit, im See Cumberland's remarks on Sanchoniatho, Huet, and Fourmont. + Pezron fur les Celts. ↑ Rudbeck's Atlantica. § Hiftoire du Ciel, par M. Pluch. "I have heard," fays the learned Warburton, "of an old humourift, a great dealer in etymologies, who being vexed at the oppofition his difcoveries met with, broke out into much learned paffion, and with a large claffical oath affirmed, That he not only knew whence words came, but whither they were going. This was only thought an extravagance of an enraged etymologit in defpair. But I apprehend the old gentleman had wit in his anger, and foberly referred to his art of explaining antiquity. And indeed on any fyftem-maker's telling me his plot, I would undertake to fhew, whither all his old words were going for in ftri&t propriety of fpeech they cannot be faid to be coming from, but going to fome old Hebrew root." Divine Legation, Book iv. Sect. 4. 1 mer fit in aqua. Hog, from the Perfianchok, porcus. Lazy, from the Hebrew by Otfel, piger, vel, fi mavis, per metathefin, ab Arab. Jul zail, definens, cessans, quia nempe piger continuo ceffat.' Same, from the Arabic, öl famaut, or femat, fignum. Cum enim, fays our Author, Anglice dicimus, this is the fame as that, quid aliud innuimus, quam, hoc habet eadem figna, et lineamenta, ac illud ?'-Sneeze, and fnore, from the Arabic näara, fonum emifit per nares. Carthage is de نعر قرية rived by Mr. V. from the Arabic & Kariat, urbs, and Ag, equus. Concerning the origin of this latter word, he fays, different opinions have been entertained. He endeavours, however, to fupport his own derivation from fome Carthaginian coins, which bear the figure of a horfe's head, in allufion to that which is faid to have been dug up in laying the foundations of the city * From Ag he alfo derives the Latin Equus, the Irish Eac, the Spanish Haca, the Portuguese Faca, the English Hackney Nag, the italian Haque-nea, five Chinea, and the French Haque nee. This is the fame hobby-horfe on which Menage rides fo much to his own fatisfa&tion, though his countryman, Jaucourt, has rather uncivilly endeavoured to drag him from his feat. Mr. Vieyra does not fcruple to get up behind him, and feems as well fatisfied with his place on the crupper, as the Frenchman with his on the faddle. We heartily with that Menage could look behind him, or, in other words, that he could fee his derivations, fo well backed by fuch fonorous words, as will at leaft fupply the lofs of thofe, which, Jaucourt tells us, exist only in the imagination of the French etymologist. ART. XVI. VOYAGE PITTORESQUE des Iles de Sicile, de Malte, & de Lipari, i. e. Travels through Sicily, Malta, and Lipari; containing an Account of the Antiquities of thefe Islands, the principal natural Phenomena they exhibit, and the particular Cuftoms and Manners of the Inhabitants. Numbers XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI. Large Folio. Each Number containing Six Plates, and Eight Pages of Defcription. Price 12 Livres each Number. W 7E refume, with pleafure, our too long interrupted account of this capital work, the moft elegant and learned, and, beyond all doubt, the most accurate of the kind.—We have had occafion to converfe with fome travellers, eminent for their tafte for, and knowledge of, the fine arts, and their affiduous and *See Juftin, Virgil, and Silius Italicus. attentive attentive obfervation of the precious remains of antiquity, who, after a careful view of the objects on the spot, have admired the judicious and accurate manner in which they are represented in the defcriptions and plates of Mr. HOUEL. No XV. This number, which, among other things, contains an account of the dreadful fate of Mefina, in the year 1783, is fingularly interefting. The 86th Plate, with which it begins, reprefents the deftruction of the Palazzata, and the parts of that beautiful and magnificent edifice, which ftill fubfift, feen from the fea. This noble edifice prefented to the harbour a femicircular front of 840 toifes in length. It was terminated by the palace of the Viceroy, which (with the Magazines of Porto Franco, at the moment of their fall, and a view of a part of the harbour) are reprefented in the 87th Plate.-The 88th Plate exhibits a view of the fouthern part of the Streights of Meffina, taken from the fhores of Calabria, wherein the coaft of Sicily, from Meffina to Catana, which was ravaged by a dreadful hurricane, in 1784, is accurately delineated, with Mount Etna in profpect. This is followed by an account of the Bachs of Ali; the rich mines of different metals that are found in a vale watered by the river Di Nifo, and a curious defcription of the mineralogical beauties of Taormina, which, in the space of five or fix leagues along the fea coaft, has wherewithal to attract the attention, and excite the admiration, of the lovers of natural history, by the immenfe variety of interefting objects which it offers to their attention. In all the other parts of Sicily, fays our Author, one fees the wonderful operations of nature already finifhed; but in the diftrict of Taormina, we see them in the progress of their formation, we obferve them, as it were, forming themselves, and we contemplate marbles and other calcareous ftones in their tendency, and their various fteps, towards lapidification. Mr. HOUEL gives a very elegant and accurate account of the procedure of nature in her operations, both external and internal, in these grottos, or rather deep caverns. He fhews, how rocks, already formed, are decompofed and diffolved by the acid of the air, rendered active by the winds, and the different degrees of the heat of the atmosphere: these different degrees, give the air more or leis activity, according as feveral accidental circumstances are more or lefs favourable: Nature,' fays he, • works with patience :-she is not in a hurry: the has no fixed epochas*, in which fuch or fuch an operation is to be performed; and Mr. HOUEL defcribes her procedure in these fingular grottos with great perfpicuity. On the traveller's approach to Taormina (the ancient Tauromenium, famous for the commerce of its inhabitants, and their This is a hint to Recupero in Brydone's Travels. tafte taste for the arts) he obferved the noble remains of an edifice, which must have been conftructed in a very grand ftyle of architecture; but, neither by examining the parts of it which subsist, nor the ruins which furround it, could he come at the knowledge of its deftination. Its ruins are delineated in the 89th Plate, and they have a great effect. The following Plate exhibits a general view of the city and theatre of Taormina. No XVI. Of all the edifices of the kind constructed by the Greeks, the theatre of Taormina has been the best preferved from the waftes of time, and is therefore the moft adapted to give us a certain knowledge of the real manner in which these buildings were erected. This object therefore occupies the learned and ingenious author throughout this whole number. In fix Plates, accompanied with accurate defcriptions, he unfolds the beauties that ftruck him in the contemplation of this noble ftructure, exhibits the true forms and utes of all its parts, recti- . fies the erroneous accounts that have been given of it by modern travellers, and, from difcovering an ancient theatre fo well preferved, takes occafion to treat of the ancient theatres in general, which make fuch an eminent figure in the hiftory of the arts. In the 90th Plate we have a general view of the theatre in queftion, of the ground before it, and the ways that lead to it ;-in the 92d, a view of the Profcenium, feen from a part of the city, and from Mount Etna; and in the 93d, 94th, 95th, 96th, beautiful details, plans, and geometrical fect ons of this celebrated theatre, exquifitely engraved and coloured, and full of effect. No XVII. The Plates 97, 98, and 99, in this number, contain picturesque views and geometrical plans of ancient tombs, cifterns, and refervoirs. The following two Plates exhibit the perfpective view and the geometrical plan and elevation of a Gymnafium, or place for public exercifes; and in the concluding Plate (102) we have a chart of Mount Etna, copied from that of the famous Canon Recupero, of Catana; who paff d all his life in ftudying the productions and the natural history of this afton fhing mountain. No XVIII. This number opens with the antiquities of Naxos, built by a colony from the Grecian ifland of that name, and whose destruction, by Dionyfius the Elder, gave occafion to the building of Taormina. These ancient remains are represented in the 103d Plate. The next contains a perspective view of Ætna, taken from the fea north-eaft of that mountain, whence it is vifible in all its immenfity. In the 105th, we have a moft beautiful and curious view of its fummit, between Roca della Capra and Trifoglietto. This is followed by an account of the famous eruption of water from one of the craters of Ætna, in 1775, that, during feveral weeks, was preceded fucceffively by accumulated objects of confternation and terror. A relation of 10 this |