82 Rev Mr Williams on the Force of the prefix Vce or Vce 



a ray of hope, derived immediately from specio, through spes, we 

 see the same difference of quantity. It therefore appears evi- 

 dent, that vesperugo, and consequently vesperus, signifies the time 

 which the Scottish peasant so appropriately calls " the gloaming,** 

 known in England under the name of the evening twilight. 



Vespices. We find this word only in the work of Festus # , 

 who interprets it " a dense thicket, from its similarity to a gar- 

 ment." This is poor work, and most probably due to Paulus. 

 Vespices has evidently the same etymology as vesperus, and means 

 an opake thicket. On the same principle, Virgil partly ascribes 

 the capture of Euryalus to the " tenebrae ramorum f ." 



Vestibulum, a vestibule, an entrance to a house, literally a 

 standing place, " a wee stall or stable." 



The favourite etymology of this very familiar word, has hi- 

 therto been that propounded by Ovid in the following lines J : 



" At focus a flammis, et quod fovet omnia dictus ; 

 Qui tamen in primis aedibus ante fuit : 

 Hinc quoque vestibulum dici reor ; unde precando, 

 Dicimus, ' O Vesta, quae loca prima tenes :* 



or, as now printed, 



" inde precando, 



Affamur Vestam, qua? loca prima tenes. - " 



According to this explanation, vestibulum was so denominated from 

 the altar of Vesta, that is, the hearth, fire-place, which, in ancient 

 times, was " in primis aedibus," in Scottish words " the but-end 

 of the house." The authority, however, of ^Elius Gallus, a 

 Roman lawyer (and, I may add, that sound, well-taught lawyers 

 are the best authority for the meaning of words), enables me to 



* " Fruteta densa, dicta a similitudine vestis." — Festus, under Vespices, p. 1006. 

 f Mx\. ix. ver. 384. } Fasti, lib. vi. ver. 102. 



