Rev. Mr Williams on the Latin Language. 495 



great superiority of the modern over the ancient philologers, is 

 not attributable solely to the successful prosecution of the study 

 of comparative etymology, a science unknown to the ancients, 

 but also to the careful examination of a mass of words and ex- 

 pressions preserved in ancient glossaries. Many of these, although 

 not now to be found in classic authors, serve as clews to the dis- 

 covery of meanings, which, without their aid, must have remained 

 unknown. In the works of Hesychius, Suidas, and in other 

 semi-barbarous lexicons or glossaries, we have not only the cor- 

 rupted, or rather, in many instances, the incorrupted form of 

 Greek words, but innumerable fragments of languages which 

 have ceased to be spoken among men. 



The scholars of our days are wiser than the one-eyed critics 

 of the Alexandrian school ; and we do not disdain the aid of every 

 cognate language in explaining works composed nearly three 

 thousand years ago. Even our own language and literature have 

 experienced the beneficial influence of this example. Our Eng- 

 lish dictionaries are assuming a more scientific form ; and the 

 language daily receives new light and vigour from the publication 

 of provincial glossaries, which cease not to issue from the press. 

 But the English glossaries alone will not suffice. For (with due 

 respect to Dr Jamieson be it said) it will eventually be found 

 true, as has been lately suggested by a writer admirably qualified 

 to give an opinion upon the subject, that no satisfactory thesaurus 

 of our magnificent and copious language, can ever be completed 

 without the aid of Celtic scholars. 



I speak from knowledge, when I say that the Anglo-Saxon is 

 deeply tinged with the language of the Britons of Wales, Corn- 

 wall, and Armorica, and that the meaning of countless words, 

 commonly regarded as pure Saxon, will in vain be sought in the 

 forests of Germany or the wilds of Scandinavia. Even household 

 terms, the language of every-day life, without the aid of scholars 

 acquainted with the primitive language or languages of these 

 islands, must be handed down to posterity as mystic signs devoid 

 of meaning. But of this at another time. 



