ii 4 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



ginal (ignification, however, of yga<£u was not precifely what 

 we now mean by the expremon to write. In the earlieft times 

 of the Greek language, it meant to carve ; and as the moft an- 

 cient method of writing was to carve fome fort of figures upon 

 tables of wood or brafs, which was exprefled by yga.(petv, (as 

 we learn from Homer *), that verb remained in ufe to exprefs 



the 



Casp. Valckenaer. Aristotle gives the following account of an element. £toi;£(~m 

 u.\» Ht Sf» paw uhaifuog' a TcLa-u jj, a.W it, r,; iri'pvx.i crv-irri yt«io% $»i«, iC yb tZ-v Stiei'ett elr\f 

 a$iuli>iToi (pwixl 5> tiSipitM xiya ^oi^hov. An Element is an indivijible found ; not every in- 

 divijible found, but from the comprjition of which an intelligible found or word] is natu- 

 rally produced. For the cries of wild animals are indivifible founds, but I call none of thefe 

 an Element. De Poetic, cap. xx. See alfo Dionys. Halicarn. de Compof. Verb, 

 cap. XIV. et Plato in Cratylo. Vol. I. p. 426. Edit. Serrani. See the Stoic defini- 

 tion of an element, quoted by Mr Harris from Diogenes Laertius : Hermes, Book III. 

 chap. 2. But though yev.^x and d]oi%ekr are clearly different, the one fignifying a let- 

 ter and the other an element, they are frequently confounded by the Greek writers ; the 

 fign being often taken for the thing fignified. Accordingly, Dionysics the Thracian, in 

 giving the etymology of the words, has confounded their meaning. Tpippmn St xiyanu 

 hot to ypafi.fUUi xat £u<rftet?s tv~io%. yfd^/xt yb to %v<rxi 7ruga. to7; 7C3,Xcm>7;, u", r.a.) 7ta.£ 'O/x^fU. 

 [Iliad. A , 388. J T« Ss xvtu r.et) ctoiyfioo xa\£ra.i Sice, to e%«» o-tolyot tita JcJ Ta|i». They are 

 called y^.y.fAscrct, on account of their being formed by lines and incijions : for y^se^at, among 

 the ancients, fignified to make an incifion, as we find from Homer, [Iliad. \', 388.] The fame 

 are called s-roi£««, becaufe they are arranged according to a certain progrefjion or feries. Ars 

 Gramm. apud Fabricium in Biblioth. Gr. Vol. VII. p. 27. Nor has Theodore Gaza 

 attended to the diftinction in his definition, though it is, in other refpects, extremely accu- 

 rate. Apx.7io» 2' 'la&>$ una tu tt^utu, c'w tat trto\y\tu\. tolvtu y% v irpwrti km itptfis \rn t' dv- 

 Spanrts tyuty, a yap t>; itvy^it 0-Vfnrtex.itKt otXXtihois «j o-vCTOco~tv Cf^Xakvs, ocXX* u% v.a\ tuio^a. Sy- 

 ?io7, cn'i-xjH tt >£ ivTuy.ras KHSfimi nac, awnxo-o-itai nonet, Xoyoi. Perhaps wefhould begin with 

 thefirfi, viz. the Elements. For they are the firfl and indivijible voice of man j not be- 

 ing connecled together at random, to produce the compojition of a fyllable j but, as the 

 name imports, arranged in a rational manner, advancing in a certain feries and regular 

 order. Grammat. Inft. Lib. IV. Priscian has remarked this confounding of an ele- 

 ment and a letter : " Abufive tamen et elementa pro Uteris et literse pro elementis vo- 

 " cantur." Lib. I. In moil cafes, however, no great inconvenience arifes from the 

 neglect of this diftin&ion. 



* Ylipwi 2t fttv Avx-'vnvSl, Tropin 3' 07s e-^xra Kvygx, 



Tpet-^x; h irivoDtt vrvKtu Svpoipvofioi ttoXXcI. Iliad. £ , 1 68. 



which, tranflated literally, runs thus : He fent him into Lycia, and he moreover gave him 

 deflruBivefigns, having carved, upon a folding tablet, a variety of them fatal to his life. 

 The poet is fpeaking of Proetus, who fent Bellerophon into Lycia with this fatal 



tablet, 



