Origin of Mythology. ^ 215 



ed" the title of their Godamay or Goda^ who is the deity of 

 the Burman empire. 



It should be added that the name Goda was used iu 

 the north of Europe, as the name of distinguished per- 

 sonages, when tiie Danes invaded England in the tenth 

 century. In the Saxon Chronicle, a Danish Thane, of 

 this name, is mentioned under the year 988, 



The only doubt respecting this origin of the word 

 Gody arises from the common orthography of the Teu- 

 tonic words, ^'oof/and God ; for in Saxon, the orthogra- 

 phy is the same — god; and in Gothic, goda is good. The 

 English word good^ is generally supposed to be the 

 Greek «»7«5o5, without the terminating article «y«^ i and 

 LyCy in his Dictionary, remarks, that as the same word 

 signifies God and ^oof/, so in Saxon, the same word sig- 

 nifies man and evil. Equally remarkable is it that the 

 word hogy whichy in the Slavonian languages is the name 

 of the Deity, in the Amharic dialect of Ethiopia, signi- 

 fies goodJ^ 



The word good is very naturally deducible from the 

 Hebrew x^- Oden, or Eden, signifying pleasure ^ delight, 

 tlie Greek -'i^or^ > for it was not unusual for the Orientals 

 to pronounce the first letter of this word with g^ goden / 

 and this orthography corresponds with th<it of the word 

 before cited, Gottinhus^ the house of Goden. 



These are the principal facts and authorities which I 

 have found respecting the origin and history of the name 

 under which Christians worship tlie Supreme Being. 



Names are of little importance, if the ideas communi- 

 cated by them are correctly understood. Yet it may be 

 suggested, that in the translation of the Scriptures from 

 the Hebrew, it might have been expedient to retain, in 

 the version, the original word, Jehovah. This word, 

 which is from the Hebrew verb, to he, to exist, and 

 which imports self -existence, or, by way of eminence, 

 the Being, the universal existence, is the most express- 



* See Lye's Sax. and Goth. Diet, under man. Ludolf's Amh. 

 Col. 43. Cluver's Germ. Anliq. i. 25. The bog of the Russians, 

 and bogo or bago., of the Ethiopians, seems to be the root of Bogud, 

 a prince who assisted Cassius in the war in Spain. " Faucis diebus^ 

 litterisCassii acceptis, rex Bogud, cum copiis venit."... .Hirt. Pansgp 

 Be Bel, Alex. 49. 



