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On the Force of the Latin Prefix Vae or Ve in the Composition of 

 Nouns and Adjectives. By the Rev. Archdeacon Williams, 

 F.R.S. Ed. Rector of the Edinburgh Academy. 



(Read 3d March 1834.; 



The Society has lately been delighted with the discovery of 

 organic remains in our vicinity, which prove, that, at some distant 

 period of unrecorded time, the fertile plains of Mid-Lothian must 

 have furnished food and habitation to beings very different from 

 those which now draw life and enjoyment from their productions. 

 Yet it must be regretted, that, in the conclusions derived from the 

 existence of such remains (with the exception of a few general 

 principles, leading us to regard with deeper feelings of awe and 

 reverence Him who has made all things so wonderfully and fear- 

 fully), we have little with which we can sympathise, and still less 

 that can link our existence with that of those of which we see 

 nothing but these imperishable monuments. I confess, however, 

 with the partiality naturally felt b)' every man for that study to 

 which he may have principally devoted his time and attention, 

 that I regard with far deeper feelings those fleeting sounds — 

 those grsa njsgoifla — which, after passing from lip to lip uninjured 

 during the lapse of so many ages, are, when carefully examined, 

 found to have been component parts of those languages, falsely 

 denominated dead, and which can be usefully adduced in illustra- 

 tion of the written records of those mighty spirits who have as yet 

 as far surpassed us in the science of mind, in the purity of their 

 taste, and the perfection of language, as we have surpassed them 



