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Particularly of the LETTER Sir MA. 149 



They lament and deplore their hard fate, and often execrate 

 Cadmus for introducing this Tau among the number of the 

 " letters. For they fay that tyrants, taking the hint from the 

 " appearance, and imitating the form, of this letter, did fa- 

 " bricate gibbets to hang men upon ; and hence this moft 

 " mifchievous contrivance obtained its odious name *. For all 

 " thefe crimes, how many deaths do you fuppofe this Tav de- 

 " ferves ? For my own part, I reckon the only punifhment 

 " adequate to his guilt would be to hang him upon a machine 

 " of his own fhape ; for it was owing to him that there was ever 

 " fuch a thing in the world as the figure or the name of a 

 " gallows." 



Thus far Luc 1 an \ and it muft be owned that the ludicrous- 

 manner was the moft proper that could be employed in treating 

 fuch a fubject. Lipsius, in his Dialogue de recla pronunciations 

 Latina lingua, has obferved, " That many attack the reputation 

 " of the letter S, and even form a delign againft its life." — 

 famam ejus multi petunt, imo vitam. — And he adds an enumera- 

 tion of thofe enemies. " Pindar (fays he) reproaches it, and 

 " calls it xt^Xov, fpurious, and, out of hatred to it, is faid to 

 " have compofed verfes without its affiftance. Dionysius the 



rhetorician, in exalting the 'P«, undervalues this letter, and 

 "brands it with the vile epithet of Sqgtoufa, favage. All the 

 " Attics deteft it, and generally have fubftituted Tav in its 



room. Latin authors feem to join in the confpiracy ; and, 

 " among men of rank, Messala fays it is not even a letter, 

 " but only a bifs. Among teachers, Quinctilian pronounces 

 " it to be a rough letter, and harfh in the combination of 

 " words. Nay, even the ancient writers rejected it, in imita- 



" tion 



* w Verisissima vocis vretv^lf originatio : rat, T<*u»po«, hoc eft in modum t«.v effor- 

 matus : et per contra&ionem T*t<f«s* et praepofito figma ut fieri folet, i-xvpos." Me- 



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NAGIUS. 



