482 PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 



earlieft focicty, and that they accordingly had coxvai 

 names. In tracing thefe names through the labyrinths 

 ot languages we approach the facred groves that envelop 

 the nurleries of mankind ; let us proceed unfwayed by 

 any prejudices, guided by the principles of true philology, 

 animated with eager curiofity, yet checked by reverential 

 awe ! If we cannot lift the veil that hides the cradles of 

 our fpecies, we may difcover fome of their infant thoughts 

 and lifping accents ! 



Several eminent authors have laboured to prove that the 

 fynonyma in different languages for each of thofe refpedtive 

 objeds (as fire, water, hand, foot, &c.) are fo numerous 

 and funilar, as to evidence one common origin. Some 

 have done this in the view of corroborating the Mofaic hif- 

 tory of creation : others with a defign to eftablifh a philo- 

 lofophical fyflem of amazing extent and variety on funple 

 principles of uniformity. Among the latter M. Court de 

 Gibelin is the mod celebrated, who in his Monde primitif 

 fl.naljft and compare avec le monde moderne endeavours to 

 trace a natural hiftory of human language, by fhowing 

 that it was originally a natural exertion of the reafon and 

 organs given to man by the Creator, and became in the 

 procefs of time a variety of dialedis which yet preferve 

 moft of their parental features.* Other philofophers have 

 been led by refledling on the extreme rudenefs of fome 

 ancient and modern tribes to affert, that mankind original- 



* This ample work is very valuable by die great coUeftion of vv^ords from 

 many languages, and by die lights thrown on feveral important parts of 

 human hillory. His candour is alfo praife-worthy in the very attempt of 

 proving affinities between quite diffimilar words. At the fame time a criti- 

 cal perufal wll b; a falutary antidote againft diis and fimilar fyftems. It 

 is alfo ufeful to remark, that his favourite idea tout cjl un dam I'miiverfe is one 

 of thofe equivocal, which in minds as his arofe from or led to the belief of 

 one Supreme God, but in others, weak or corrupt, have foftcred the fimple 

 yet many-headed m.onftcr of materialifm, fo prevailing in our times, and fo 

 near akm to atbeifni. 



