FRANCISCE, damnatosque duri Eheu! quot atris pestibus urimur! Quos et amor movet et cupido Insana famæ quid, quod et insuper Plerumque paupertas acumen Hac lege rerum callidus Arbiter Munere; ne nimium beati, Fretique vanis artibus, ebrios Perpetuam propriamve sperent. Nobis iniquas sic variat vices, Spirare primam qui dedit, ultimam Ergo querelis pone modum tuis ; Est vir ferendo: tu neque desines Per damna, per fraudes malorumque Quo prisca virtus, quo Patriæ vocat 1 Olim procellas et celerem fugam Sed liberales vertere spiritus Laborioso quum tibi anhelitu Flevisse Clio, Melpomene suum Salvum reduxit, non sine plurimo un- Sic te benigno numine Delius Diu sororum servet amans choro, Difficilem querulosque morbos!" 'Philosophical opinions, too warmly professed by Manoel, who was a Portuguese, and a priest, incensed against him the Inquisition, and he was obliged to make a hasty departure.-EDIT. 2 We wish the Author of these elegant verses had been acquainted with the rules for the scansion of Alcaic verse in No. xxii. of the Classical Journal.-EDIT. " SYLVA, OR SILVA. THE orthography of this term remains so remarkably unsettled, that the same author, in two works published in succession,' is found to adopt both modes of writing it. Not without consi deration certainly, and probably, as it is conceived, on right grounds, he abides by the latter mode, which it would seem,、 has the authority of all ancient MSS. The analogy between 3an and Silva appears the sole argument adduced by those who adopt the y, as if it were an ascertained point that the Greek now in print was the parent from which the Latin is sprung; or that any deviation in Latin, from this model must necessarily be a corruption. That the two tongues have an intimate relation, is evident; that the ancestors of each nation once spoke the same dialect, may be true; and even that in Greek the deflection may be less from the primitive tongue; but that this is to be predicated of every individual word, or of this word in particular, can by no means be admitted. In another term which exists in both tongues, "s, sus, the original form, σus, remains in another, in which the sibilation has been in like manner dropped, or transposed, by the Greeks, aλs, sal, it is observable that in every other European tongue, whether of Celtic, Sclavonic, or Teutonic derivation, the same name, however differently pronounced, is given to this substance, and in every other tongue is the initial s retained, with the exception of the three Cimbric dialects, Armorian, Welsh, and Cornish. Horne Tooke remarks, that the words of a language in its progress, as an army in its march, are more likely to suffer loss by the desertion of letters, than to receive the accretion of others. In these terms silva, sus, and sal, therefore, it is more probable that the deviation from the primordial term has been in the Greek, by converting the s into an aspirate, and that in fact the Roman term approaches nearest the original. In the sound of the vowel, there probably was as little uni formity in the two dialects. A term of such ordinary occur rence must, by different tribes, have been differently pronounced. Wakefield's Georgics, 1788, Sylva, passim.-Wakefield's Silva, 1793, to have been pronounced salz, sealt, sel, s In the Teutonic dialect the term for salt, for example, appears sul, zout." How then can we be justified in correcting by our etymological notions, the Roman spelling, by the Greek? But even if it were as true as it is incredible, that An was the original term, and silva its derivative, if the only proof to which we can resort, if MSS. concur in giving silva, what right can we have to correct them? Even in modern tongues we cannot take a similar liberty; we know, for instance, that the word fancy, is derived from Cavracía, yet no one now ventures to write, phancy. One of our most eminent men, as distinguished by his conversational talent, as by his learning, (and by saying this, he is sufficiently identified,) accounts for some persons pronouncing kewcumber, by their wish to show that they know how to spell the word: so, probably, they who write sylva, want to prove their acquaintance with Greek. A remark made by Jacob Bryant well deserves attention: "When people see two languages that have a similitude, they almost always suppose that one is derived from the other. They may just as well, when they see in a large family, two children like one another, imagine one to be the parent, the other the offspring; whereas these two, and all the brothers and sisters, are from a former parent: for similitude does not intimate precedency." THERE is a peculiar signification of the word rpaxus, which H. Stephens and other Lexicographers have omitted, and which is not sufficiently expressed by the Latin asper. In the follow ! Wachteri Glossarium, 1951, ing instances it appears to imply impatient of opposition, sensible of offence, or, without a periphrasis, may perhaps be rendered by our word hasty. Asch. Prom. v. 35. "Απας δὲ τραχὺς ὅστις ἂν νέον κρατῇ. Sept. c. Theb. 1046. Τραχύς γε μέντοι δῆμος ἐκφυγών κακά. The following passage from Plutarch is quoted by H. Stephens under the word δύσαρκτος, and is very apposite: Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω γαῦρον καὶ τραχὺ καὶ δύσαρκτον ὡς ἀνὴρ ἔφυ εὐπραγίας δοκούσης ἐπιλαμβανόμενος. Eur. Med. 446. Οὐ νῦν κατεῖδον πρῶτον, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις, Τραχεῖαν ὀργὴν, ὡς ἀμήχανον κακόν : In this instance, a hasty temper seems the exact interpretation οἱ τραχεῖαν ὀργήν. Use of οἶμαι and δοκέω by Demosthenes and Xenophon. Mr. Barker, in the Classical Journal, No. V. p. 152., has noticed a curious use of oluas in Demosthenes, as in the following instances: ἀλλ ̓, οἶμαι, καθήμεθα οὐδὲν ποιοῦντες: again, καὶ ὅπει τις ἂν, οἶμαι, προσθῇ κἂν μικρὰν δύναμιν, πάντ ̓ ὠφελεῖ. The use of doxéw in Xenophon is equally curious, and nearly parallel; Κ. Π. i. 1, 1. Πολλοὺς δ ̓ ἐδοκοῦμεν καταμεμαθηκέναι καὶ ἐν ἰδίοις οἴκοις, κ. τ. λ. Ibid. i. 1, 2. Πάσας τοίνυν τὰς ἀγέλας ἐδοκοῦμεν ὁρᾷν μᾶλλον ἐθελούσας πείθεσθαι τοῖς νομεύοσιν, ἢ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοῖς ἄρχουσι. Ibid. i. 1, 6. Οσα οὖν καὶ ἐπυθόμεθα, καὶ ᾐσθῆσθαι δοκοῦμεν περὶ αὐτοῦ, κ. τ. λ. Μ. |