5o8 PHILOLOGICAL INQIJIRIES. 



comparifon of refpe(ftive words will therefore illuftrate 

 climates ^and natural hiftory : thus the Poles call April 

 Kwiecien, and the Swedes May Blonifter-numad^ month of 

 flowers — P. Lijlopad, B, Ly/Iopad, fall of the leaves, is the 

 name of November — AS. Trwiilcki^ month of May, from 

 milking the cows three times in the day, an etymon re- 

 jected by thofe who know not the rapidity of northern ve- 

 getation ; Haleg-inonadhj September, from fifhing (Hu. 

 Hal, fi(h. — Several North American nations call March 

 the Worm month, becaufe the worms then come out from 

 their winter retreats. May month of Flowers, November 

 Beaver-monih., becaufe the beavers begin to go into winter 

 quarters, January the Cold, February the Snow-month* 



Languages are widely fcattered and jumbled fragments 

 cf a mirror, which when fkilfully joined and polifhed 

 will prefent inftrudlive pidlures of men and things in prif- 

 tine times. True philology is therefore fo far from being 

 a mere amufement, as to deferve the application of indi- 

 vidual talents, and the cheri filing care of nations. 



* CaiTer, p. i6o. I have for twenty-eight years obfervcd tliat January 

 is generally too cold for fnowing in the middle ftates. 



NOTES. 



Left the v.nde fcale of this concife treatife may to fome readers appear 

 ihowy, I Ihall candidly ftate the lei's obvious means of information. The 

 Swediih language, known in its whole compafs of modem, obfolete, pro- 

 vincial, has relations of amazing extent, near with all the Teutonic, confi- 

 derable with the Celtic, Roman, Sclavonian, Hungarian, Perfian, Turkifli, 

 and many other Afiatic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, &c. It has of all Eu- 

 ropean been the beft illuftratcd : particularly by the late Profelfor Ihre in his 

 Lexicon S-vio-Gothicum. Its affinity with the Englifh, modern and ancient is 

 diiplayed by the late Bifliop Serenius in his EngU/Jj-Stuedj/h and SixieJi^j-EiigliJh 

 Diftionaries, both with correfponding Latin words. A Swede has therefore 

 fuperior advantage for general philological acquifitions. He will become 

 intimate with the ancient Teutonics by adding to his native ftores the writ- 

 ings of Iflandic, Danifh, German, Dutch, Englifh, Antiquaries ; among 

 the laft the excellent work of Hicka, the concife Anglo-Saxon-Latin Voca- 

 bulary 



