in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 71 
perishable. Its forms may vary ; it may assume as many shapes 
as the plastic element which the mystic theology of the Greeks 
represented under the graphic mythos of o IlgaJevs (of him the 
first, rov zgalov) ; but when once firmly grasped, when boldly in- 
terrogated, and. bound by the strict chains which judicious ety- 
mology has fabricated for the purpose, it will resume its original 
form, and enable us to recognize the still existing features—the 
disjecta membra of some well known and yet living dialect. 
This can be truly said of the particle ve, or rather ve, which 
still exists in the language of the Scottish peasant, under the 
same form, and, as far as can be ascertained, almost with the 
same sound, with which it was pronounced more than twenty- 
five centuries ago in the vicinity and streets of ancient Rome. 
But I would not wish it to be understood that Scotland alone 
has retained the word, which, on the contrary, has been, or still 
is, a useful portion of many other languages, as may be seen 
from the followmg table, where the precedence is given to those 
dialects which have retained the original guttural sound, more 
or less softened : 
Cimbric, Bach, Vach, softened Va 
Gallic, Beag 
Persian, Bega, Beja 
Teutonic, Fabe 
Greek, Betty -05 
Scottish, Wee 
small, little. 
To prove that the Latin ve bore the same meaning, and was 
in fact cognate with these general forms, it will be necessary to 
examine every word to which it is prefixed, in its pure state as 
a long syllable. 
Vecors, insane, deficient in sense, literally a man with a small 
heart *. In Cicrro’s words, “ to others, the heart seems to be 
* Kae, xie, cor, cordis, heart. 
