542 Rev. Mr Wrvuiams on one Source of the 
still more ancient, or invented a grammar, now peculiar to them- 
selves. This, although it be simple and scientific in the highest 
degree, is so completely at variance with all the other grammars 
of the civilized world that scholars who have to acquire it late in 
life feel the strongest repugnance to its forms and principles, and. 
are tempted to regard a language more fixed and unchangeable 
in its principles than any other existing, as more slippery and 
grasp-escaping than the Proteus of the Grecian mythologists. 
To persons who have formed their conception of verbal roots 
from the unvarying character of those important elements in the 
Greek, Latin, and modern languages, it appears strange that these 
radicals themselves should be continually shifting in form. Let 
such, however, be assurred that the system is as fixed and regu- 
lar as that which from 
roma derives rufa reru—a rerupos, eruQdny rvPOnoowas. 
Now, although the grammars of the Latin and Cumrian lan- 
' Take, for example, the following examples :— 
Pen, a head.—Plur. Pennae. Tréd, a foot.—Plur. Traed. 
Ei-Ben, his head. Ei-Drdd, his foot. 
Ei-Phen, her head. Ei-Thréd, her foot. 
Fy-Mhen, my head. Fy-Nhrod, my foot. 
Gavel, a hold.—Plur. Gaveilae. Cam, a step.—Cammae, steps. 
Ei-Avel, his hold. Ei-Gam, his step. 
Ei-Gavel, her hold. Ei-Cham, her step. 
Fg-Nghavel, my hold. Fy-Ngham, my step. 
Bwyd, food. Carii, to love. 
Ei-Fwyd, his food. Ei-Garii, to love him. 
Ei-Bwyd, her food. Ei-Charii, to love her. 
Fy-Mwyd, my food. Im-Carii, to love me. 
These and such changes never for a moment cause a scholar to confound two radi- 
cals, which change only on certain conditions and fixed principles. But when a 
language formed on such a principle breaks up, and a new one is reconstructed from 
its fragments, and perhaps that of others, we may expect to see such grammatical 
forms figuring in the new language as independent radicals; thus, under one of the 
above described forms, we have three English words :— 
Bwyd, bait, either for a fish or horse. 
Ei-Fwyd, his food. 
Fy-Mwyd, my meat. 
