344 



DISQUISITIONS on the 



ie region, — that which bodies take when left to themfelves, — 

 " or that which puts a body in the loweft place it can occu- 



" py." 



This is one of the Greek prepofitions which afTume figni- 

 fications apparently fo remote, that, at firft view, it is not 

 eafy to reduce them to one radical fenfe, however confidently 

 we may reft upon the principle, that there muft have been fuch 

 a radical fenfe, from which the different fignifications branched 

 out. Mircc, it is well known, is commonly ufed in three differ- 

 ent meanings ; with the genitive denoting with, with the dative 

 among, with the accufative after. The analogy between the two 

 former is fufficiently obvious ; but the coincidence of either of 

 them with the third feems at firft unaccountable. Upon exa- 

 mining the word, however, by the principles of etymology, 

 perhaps this apparent incongruity may be accounted for. 



Msroi appears to be an immediate derivative from the obfolete 

 verb ^g<y, I go j a verb in common ufe in Latin, though in great 

 meafure difufed in Greek. Msra being thus an immediate de- 

 fendant from a verb fignifying to go or travel, its primary fig- 

 nification moft probably was a way-poJl y a way-direftor j a fenfe 

 nearly the fame with what it ftill retains in Latin, met a, a goal. 

 From this fenfe of way-poft or way- director, ^sra would foon be 

 transferred to exprefs a conductor of the way, or a guide, of what- 

 ever kind this might be. Our own word guide feems to have 

 been formed by a fimilar analogy. It is guida in Italian, and guia 

 in Spaniih ; which laft clearly demonftrates the origin of the 

 whole to have been the Latin word via, " a way." 



Explaining pura,, then, by guide or conductor, its different 

 ufes may be eafily refolved. With the genitive it denotes a con- 

 ductor or guide who accompanies us, or whom we accompany - T 



hence 



