64 Rev. Mr Wivurams on the Force of the prefia Ve or Ve 
in the severer sciences—in unfolding the mysterious powers of 
matter—in discovering the laws according to which they operate 
—and in subjecting them to the dominion of man. It is with 
these feelings, and also from a wish to contribute to the great 
work now so admirably carried on by the German scholars, and 
by some distinguished fellow-labourers in this country, that of 
uniting the present and the past, the remote and the near, by 
proving the consanguinity of the great Caucasian branch of the 
human family, that the following statement has been drawn up 
on the force of the Latin Sore ve or (as it was written by the 
more ancient Romans) ve *. 
Fiepemes see in tenui labor. 
Ve seems to have been in common use at an early period of 
the Roman Republic, as we find it in connection with some of 
the most ancient part of their mythology, as in Vedius, Vejovis, 
and Veflamen. Yet when their critics and grammarians, the na- 
tural produce of a later period, and of more quiet times, began 
to inquire into the origin and first meaning both of words in 
common use and of obsolete expressions, ve or v@ no longer ex- 
isted, except as a part of compounded words. By comparing, 
however, in certain cases, the simple word, as grandis, with its 
compounded form, as vegrandis, they were enabled to ascertain its 
original force, without, however, proceeding further, and apply- 
ing such a discovery to the solution of many etymological diffi- 
culties. “ Ve” (says Festus) “ was prefixed by the ancients to 
a small thing, whence Vejovis, little Jupiter }.” Soon after, he 
adds, “ they used ve instead of very small }.” Auius GELutus, 
* “ Ve, particula que in aliis atque aliis vocabulis variatim per Dye duas literas, 
cum a litera media immissa dicitur.” 
+ “ Ve enim syllabam preponebant parve rei, unde Vejovem, parvum Jovem.” 
—Vatry’s Delphin. p. 1005. under Vesculus. 
+ “ Ve pro pusillo utebantur.”—Ibid. eod. pag. under Vescus. 
