Rev. Mr Wit.iams on the Latin Language. 495 
great superiority of the modern over the ancient philologers, is 
not attributable solely to the successful prosecution of the study 
of comparative etymology, a science unknown to the ancients, 
but also to the careful examination of a mass of words and ex- 
pressions preserved in ancient glossaries. Many of these, although 
not now to be found in classic authors, serve as clews to the dis- 
covery of meanings, which, without their aid, must have remained 
unknown. In the works of Hzsycurus, Surpas, and in other 
semi-barbarous lexicons or glossaries, we have not only the cor- 
rupted, or rather, in many instances, the incorrupted form of 
Greek words, but innumerable fragments of languages which 
have ceased to be spoken among men. 
The scholars of our days are wiser than the one-eyed critics 
of the Alexandrian school ; and we do not disdain the aid of every 
cognate language in explaining works composed. nearly three 
thousand years ago. Even our own language and literature have 
experienced the beneficial influence of this example. Our Eng- 
lish dictionaries are assuming a more scientific form; and the 
language daily receives new light and vigour from the publication 
.of provincial glossaries, which cease not to issue from the press. 
But the English glossaries alone will not suffice. For (with due 
respect to Dr Jamieson be it said) it will eventually be found 
true, as has been lately suggested by a writer admirably qualified 
to give an opinion upon the subject, that no satisfactory thesaurus 
of our magnificent and copious language, can ever be completed 
without the aid of Celtic scholars. 
I speak from knowledge, when I say that the Anglo-Saxon is 
deeply tinged with the language of the Britons of Wales, Corn- 
wall, and Armorica, and that the meaning of countless words, 
commonly regarded. as pure Saxon, will in vain be sought in the 
forests of Germany or the wilds of Scandinavia. Even household 
terms, the language of every-day life, without the aid of scholars 
acquainted with the primitive language or languages of these 
islands, must be handed down to posterity as mystic signs devoid 
of meaning. But of this at another time. 
