ADVERTISEMENT. I PRESUME my readers to be acquainted with French, Latin, Italian and Greek; which are unfortunately the usual boundaries of an English scholar's acquisition. On this supposition, a friend of mine lamented that, in my Letter to Mr. Dunning, I had not confined myself to the common English character for the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic derivations. In the present publication I should undoubtedly have conformed to his wishes, if I had not imagined that, by inserting the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic characters in this place, I might possibly allure some of my readers to familiarize themselves with those characters, by an application of them to the few words of those languages which are here introduced: and thus lead way to their better acquaintance with the parent language, which ought long ago to have made a part of the education of our youth. And I flatter myself that one of the consequences of my present inquiry will be, to facilitate and abridge the tedious and mistaken method of instruction which has too long continued in our seminaries: the time which is at present the allotted to Latin and Greek, being amply sufficient for the acquirement also of French, Italian, Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, German, Danish and Swedish. Which will not seem at all extraordinary, when it is considered that the five last mentioned (together with the English) are little more than different dialects of one and the same language. And though this was by no means the leading motive, nor is the present object of my inquiry; yet I think it of considerable importance: although I do not hold the acquisition of languages in so very great estimation as the Emperor Charles the Vth did; who, as Brantome tells us, "disoit et repetoit souvent, quand il tomboit sur la beauté des langues, (selon l'opinion des Turcs)-qu'autant de langues que l'homme sçait parler, autant de fois est-il homme." ΕΠΕΑ ΠΤΕΡΟΕΝΤΑ, &c. CHAPTER VII. OF CONJUNCTIONS. H. WAS afraid of some such instances as these, when I wished to postpone the whole consideration of this subject till after we had discussed the other received Parts of Speech. Because, in order to explain it, I must forestall something of what I had to say concerning Conjunctions. However, since the question is started, perhaps it may be as well to give it here. The truth of the matter is, that IF is merely a Verb. It is merely the Imperative of the Gothic and AngloSaxon verb FIFAN, Lipan. And in those languages, as well as in the English formerly, this supposed Conjunction was pronounced and written as the common Imperative, purely гIE, GIF, Gif. Thus "My largesse Hath lotted her to be your brother's mistresse *Sad Shepherd, act 2. scene 1. |