126 ANALOGY cf GREEK LETTERS; 



efiiecially Emanuel Chrysoloras, and allowing the llyfj^a, to 

 be .1 fen:aivowel ; but perceiving that it is neither a liquid, nor 

 a double confonant, nor a mute, they have called it litera fol'ila- 

 ria, et fua potejlatis, vel fui juris ; the fdhcry^ and the abfolute 

 or htdepetidmt letter ; the letter which pofTefTes a Angular and 

 independent power, nowife fettered by that relative analogy to 

 which the other confonants are obliged to fubmit. That is to 

 fay, there has been a fingular found obferved to fubfift in the 

 Greek language, expreffive of a great many varieties in the 

 xhanges and inflecflions of words independent of certain other 

 claflTes of changes and infleflions ; and that lingular found has 

 been denoted by the lly^a,. For it is certain, that languages 

 were ufed previous to the invention of letters, though they 

 mufl: have been very rude in that early ftate. But they would 

 afterwards be much refined by thofe very letters, the ufe of 

 which muft doubtlefs have fuggefted many eflential improve- 

 ments, which would not otherwife have been thought of. 



Now, upon what grounds the llyf^a, is entitled to an ex- 

 emption or diftindlion, fuch as I have naentioned, it may be 

 worth while to examine. The inquiry will tend to fhew the 

 great ufe, and indeed abfolute neceflity of fuch a characSler in 

 the alphabet of this mofl exquifite of all languages. 



Dr Samuel Clarke, one of the mofl acute and ingenious 

 of all the commentators, has, in a note upon the word mXuir<n, 

 at the beginning of the thirteenth book of the Iliad, men- 

 tioned a probable reafon, in his opinion, why the ancients 

 held the llyjj.a. to be fua potejiatis. " Xi'ihavai, fays he, muft 

 " certainly be written with a double <r, becaufe the fecond fyl- 

 " lable of viKu-ffi is ftiort. It may, however, (continues he), be 

 " queftioned, whether the more ancient Greeks made ufe of 

 " that mode of writing. For when they called <r an arbitrary 

 " letter, perhaps they meant, that whereas the letters ^, |, ■»/', 

 " are neceflarily double, and all the reft of the confonants 

 " fimple, (T alone has this peculiarity, that, in a great many 



" places, 



