126 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTER Sj 



efpecially Emanuel Chrysoloras, and allowing the llypa. to 

 be a femivowel ; but perceiving that it is neither a liquid, nor 

 a double confonant, nor a mute, they have called it Utera folita- 

 ria, et fua potejiath^ vel fui juris ; the folitcry, and the abfolutt 

 or independent letter ; the letter which pofTerTes a lingular 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 lingular found obf?rved to fubfift in the 

 Greek language, expreflive of a great many varieties in the 

 changes and inflections of words independent of certain other 

 clafTes of changes and inflections ; and that fingular found has 

 been denoted by the llypu. For it is certain, that languages 

 were ufed previous to the invention of letters, though they 

 muff, 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 efTential improve- 

 ments, which would not otherwife have been thought of. 



Now, upon what grounds the Tiyy.u. is entitled to an ex- 

 emption or diftinclion, fuch as I have mentioned, it may be 

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

 great ufe, and indeed abfolute neceffity of fuch a character in 

 the alphabet of this mofl exquifite of all languages. 



Dr Samuel Clarke, one of the moft acute and ingenious 

 of all the commentators, has, in a note upon the word KiXucrce, 

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

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

 held the Hyy.a, to be fua potejiatts. " IT^a<r<rg, fays he, muft 

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

 lable of TeXaa-g is fhort. 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 £, f, -v/>, 

 are necefTarily double, and all the reft of the confonants 

 fimple, c alone has this peculiarity, that, in a great many 



" places, 



