G R A M M A R. 



J-jlm cf .'he hanil. Now tlie action of the luiiid is tv.-o-fold, to 

 give or I'j receive. In the latter ienfe it iias pafled into Latin, 

 and produced aip'io, citpio, and even Iiabeo, mKS.nn\g to LoU ; in 

 the former it has given birth to the Anglo-Saxon verb ^f//", 

 which fignifics the action of the hand in imparting. Our 

 word keep is apparently of the fame origin, meaning to hold. 

 Mr. Tooke obfcries, that ^/n is ufed in our Northern coun- 

 tries, and by the Scotch in tl.e fenfe of if, and he jullly fays, 

 that it is only a contraClion of the participle _5^;V?n. 



ylii, uied by old autliors, means if, as in the following 

 lines, quoted by Juhnfon : 



" An honeft mind and plain : he muft fpeak truth 

 Jin they will take it fo ; if not, he's plain :" 



That is, if they will take it fo. This Mr. Tooke derives 

 from aitan, to grant, which is only the Latin pnmio, Vo ajfent 

 to ; whereas an is the Arabic particle ;J^, an, whicli is pro- 

 nounced as if written in, when meaning if. We borrowed 

 it from the Gothic, where it is employed, as it is alfo in 

 Latin, to mark an interrogation. The derivation of tinhfs, 

 or, as it was formerly wiitten, onks, from on-Ies, feems at 

 firft. fight not to be difputcd. The application of the An- 

 glo-Saxon oiihs does not appear forced ; as Troy will be taken, 

 cnles the palladium be prcfervcd, /'. e. Troy will be taken, 

 difmifs the palladium be preferved, or, difmifs that circum- 

 ftance, namely, the pivfervation of the palladium, and Troy- 

 will be tak<jn. And yet we arc perfuaded that this is not 

 the true interpretation of inilefs. Mr. Tooke is not fair in 

 explaining the words from which he would derive this and 

 other particles ; but, in order to anfwer his own purpofe, 

 gives them a meaning which they really do not bear. On- 

 Ifan is interpreted by lye, un-leefe fe. im-loofe, folvere, and it 

 has no other meaning : and in this fenfe it is incapable of 

 folving the difficulty. — " Troy will be taken, unhofed tiie 

 palladium be preferved," wiiich is hardly fenfe. Mr. Tooke 

 acknowledges that the Anglo-Saxon writers have not given 

 us inftances of or.les in a conjunftive fenfe : " but, inilead of 

 it," adds lie, " they frequently employ nymth: or ncmthe, 

 which is evidently the .niperative nym or nem of nyman or 

 ncman, to wliich is fubjoined the, i. e. that : and nymihe, tahe 

 away that, may very well fupply the place of onles the, ex- 

 prefTed or underftood, difmifs that. But nyman figmiics not 

 merely to take, but to take coiinfe!, it being derived from the 

 Greek mi^^u:, to confult or deliberate ; while the Latin nempe 

 is nfj.u Ti; by law, by right, rightly, truly : leafe is a lecu- 

 ■ ritv by law, and uidefs, we conceive, is a corruption of 

 unleafed, i. e. unpro-vided, unfecured. Thus, Troy will be 

 taken, iinlefs the palladium be prei'erved, i. e. it being unpro- 

 vided, or it being not provided, that the palladium be pre- 

 ferved ; or, provided that the palladium be not preferved, 

 Troy will be taken. This author adds les, the imperative 

 of hfan, which has the fame meaning with on-lefan, is like- 

 wife ufed by old writers inftead of uniefs ; as, " But will 

 not bide there lefs yourfelf do bring him.'' To this he fub- 

 joins, in a note, p. 173, " It is this fame imperative hfs, placed 

 at the end of nouns, and coalefcing with them, which has 

 given to our language fuch adjeiilives as bopelefs, rcjUefs, 

 deathlefs, molionlefs, &c. ;. e. difmifs Iiope, reit, death, mo- 

 tion." But les, we think, wliich, though not in a compara- 

 tive form, conveys a comparative idea, is the offspring ol 

 the Greek Ai.-, (as little is of Aito,) both fignifying /fW/, 

 flender. From denoting fomething minute, it came, as the 

 Latin minus, to exprefs negation. On this principle, a /leep- 

 lefs night, meant at firll not abfolutely a night without (leep, 

 but a night having lefs fleep than is necelfary, or his than 



ufual, though ill time it came to convey abfoluloly a negativi* 

 idea. Ilopelefs without hope ; bollomUfs, having no bottom ; 

 and wc appeal to our readers, whcll'rr lliis • xj^laiiation bf* 

 not more fimpic and natural tlian dfmifs lie lollotn. If this, 

 derivation be jull, lijl or /<•<//? is not the pad participle Lfd 

 of lifen, to difmifs, but a contraftion ol LJJlrt, tlie analogical 

 fuperlativc of lefs, and it means the lead degree of fomc con- 

 fe<[Ui:nce that follows the preceding claufe ; as, " Let tliofc 

 who (land take heed U\>Jl they fail ;'' which means, let thofe 

 who (land take heed ; if not, they will fall, and that is ihc 

 lead that may happen. 



Eke, and, in the Latin ac, is iiliimately. derived from the 

 Greek atji, or as it is in Latin angen, to increafe, though it 

 may come more immediately from cacan, the Anglo-Saxon 

 offspring of atji'. An obfcrvation of Mr. TooVe goes cer- 

 tainly to prove the latter, if we can depend on its c< rreifl- 

 nefs. " In each language,'' fays lie, " where this impe- 

 rative is ufed conjun61ively, the conjunction varies juft as 

 the verb does. In DaniHi, the conjunction is og, and the 

 verb Dger. In Swedilh, the conjunction is och, and the verb 

 oka. In Dutch, the conjundtion is cck, from the verb oeclcn. 

 In German, the conjunction is auch, from the verb auehon. 

 In Gothic, the conjundtion is auk, and the verb is aulan." 

 Thi.i example ferves to fliew how nearly allied tliefe lan- 

 guages are one to another, .ind how a large portion of tliem 

 is derived from t!ie Greek and Latin. 



Tet is affuredly the Anglo-Saxon get or gut, cdhuc, cliam, 

 though Mr. Tooke has referred it to the verb to gel. This 

 grammarian feenis not to have fufiiciently fludieJ thofe ana- 

 logies by which the genius of a language is formed. The 

 Anglo-Saxon, delighting in gutturals, forms many of its 

 words by prefixing the particle ^fc, or the lettcr_f. Thus, 

 gefryri, pridem, is o;ily the Greek rr^f, with ge ; and ge- 

 mang is our among. This peculiarity gave birth to the 

 German mode of prefixing ge to the perfect participle, and 

 is the principle on which the Greek -ti, in Anglo-Saxon is 

 corrupted into getei, gel, or gul. The Anglo-Saxon Jlellan, 

 the Gcrmnn flellen, the Swediih _/?.7//fl, the Daiiifli yW/ir, 

 originated in the Greek rsAJ.i-, which denoted firft to lav 

 'down the fails of n flip- Hence in the above iTiintioned 

 modern tongues, it came to fignify, to place, compcfe, or 

 ad';uj} : but the general confequcnce of putting down the 

 fails is to give flillnefs or tranquiirtty to the fhip. Hence 

 s-=XXi- gave birth alfo to the Anglo-Saxon fiillan, and the 

 Englini to fill, and to the conjunction fiUl. The Anglo- 

 Saxon and Gothic ufed it conjunctively in the form of JliUf 

 or Jlylle, and its immediate parent undoubtedly \s Jlillan, and 

 not fiellan, as Mr. Tooke would have us believe. 



Elfe, with no lefs certainty, is the Anglo-Saxon cUet, the 

 Latin alias, and the Greek ^Wu:, and has uotliing to do with 

 a'efan, to difmifs, and it means not exception or difnnjfcn, but a 

 change or diirercncc in the confequence, or in the condition 

 of what is expreffed in the preceding claufe. Thus, let 

 the derivation be juft, elfe it will not be received, /'. e. 

 otheriuife it will not be received : let the derivation be iuit ; 

 if otherwife than jurt, it will not be received. On Mr. 

 Tooke's principle the folution ftands thus : let the deri\-a-. 

 tion be jull, difmifs it «i!l not be received, an interpretation 

 at once unnatural and unmeaning ; and in order to give it 

 tlie appearance of fenfe and coherence, he is forced to fiip- 

 ])ofe a clasfe underjhod. Let the derivation be juft. difmifi 

 the derivation being juft, or difmifs that circumftnuce, it 

 will not be received : fee his rcfolution of fuch examples in 

 vol. i. p. 247. The con'iunCtion o>.a.s , like «>,Xj .-, is a mo; 

 dilicatiou of the prcyioun aX>.o,-, anotlia-, and may be re- 

 folved in the fame way as eife isj Engliftt. P-.». o.-tt xa7s^v79l, 

 462 ix>:i.n' 



