79, Rev. Mr Williams on the Force of the prefix Ve or V<b 



the mind: hence men are called vecordes, eoocordes, Concordes; 

 and Scipio Nasica acquired the surname of Corculum from his 

 prudence * " On the same principle, the great wisdom of Solo- 

 mon is described as " a large heart f," the contrary to which 

 would of course be expressed, as in the Latin vecordia, by small- 

 ness of heart. We have no right to blame the ancients for 

 making the heart the organ of intellect, as we are ourselves, 

 equally unphilosophically, in making that powerful but senseless 

 muscle the source and seat of all our benevolent and malignant 

 emotions : while those among us who pride themselves on as- 

 signing the several faculties of the mind to their respective or- 

 gans, are relapsing into the interminable circle of human errors, 

 and make our sense and folly, our benevolence and malignity, 

 dependant upon the proportional magnitude of the supposed or- 

 gans. 



Vedius, " Pluto, called also Dis J," as we are informed by Mar- 

 tianus Capella ||. One of the most difficult tasks that a scho- 

 lar has to perform, is to acquire a distinct idea of the Latin my- 

 thology in its pure state, before it was intermixed, and conse- 

 quently corrupted, by the wilder and more imaginative inven- 

 tions of the priests and poets of Greece. In the hands of the 

 latter, Dis, Dios, or Zeus, became exclusively the god of thunder. 

 Among the earlier Latins, we find his duties confined to the ope- 

 rations of light, and that only during the day. " The ancients," 

 says Festus, " called day-lightning Dium fulgur, because they 

 attributed it to Jupiter, as night-lightning was attributed to 



* " Aliis cor animus videtur, ex quo vecordes, excordes, concordesque dicuntur, 

 et Nasica ille prudens Corculum. 11 — Tusc. i. 9- 



-f- " And the Lord gave Solomon largeness of heart." 



X A(oj, dius, dies, day (originally light); hence daze, dazzle, dawn, longer form 

 Dianus, pronounced and written at a later period Janus. 



|| " Vedius, id est Pluton, quem etiam Ditem dixere." — Lib. ii. p. 40. 



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