in the Composition of Nouns and Adjectives. 69 



when compared with the corresponding portion of Paulus, en- 

 ables us to discover the extent of the sins both of omission and 

 commission perpetrated by the monkish barbarian. The mis- 

 chief caused by omission is of course irreparable ; but, under the 

 able guidance of Joseph Scaliger, we may exercise our inge- 

 nuity in discovering his counters, and separating them from the 

 more valuable productions of the Roman mint : Yet it is a con- 

 jectural art, where it is scarcely possible to persuade another to 

 agree with you in all points ; consequently that science, as yet 

 without a name, and of which a small portion only is compre- 

 hended under the modern acceptation of the word Philology, has 

 sustained a severe loss, as far as Latin literature is concerned, 

 from the united labours of Festus and Paulus. It must, how- 

 ever, be confessed, that it was principally from this book, maimed, 

 mutilated, and mangled as it is, that the great Niebuhr drew 

 those materials which enabled him to reconstruct the edifice of 

 the early history of Rome, and infuse life into what had previous- 

 ly been nothing but a confused heap of lifeless bones. 



I have thought it right to make these previous observations, 

 in order to account for the many absurd derivations of Latin 

 words commonly found in our dictionaries, many of which (al- 

 though assuredly not all) are to be fathered upon this miserable 

 Paul, whose mutilated copy of Festus was almost literally tran- 

 scribed by the first modern lexicographers of the Latin language. 



I must here notice a question which has been often asked, 

 Why men like Cato, CiESAR, Varro, and Messala, — why a 

 Verrius Flaccus or a Quinctilian, should be so anxious about 

 the use and etymology of words, seeing the framers of the lan- 

 guage themselves regarded not such trifles, and left them to the 

 researches of future and less active ages ? To answer this ques- 

 tion fully, and at the same time conclusively, would require a 

 volume. But it may be briefly stated, that a language in its in- 

 fancy has but few radical terms, and that these are confined to 

 the expression of our common feelings and actions, and to the 



