556 Rev. Mr Williams on one Source of the 



That it was a Gallic word we know well, as Strabo, when speaking of the 

 Gauls in general, writes, Tag' avccei 6s ug sowrav rg/a <pvka ruv ti/Jju/msvuv 6ia,pseov1ug ierr 

 BagSo/, rs xcu Ouarsig, xui Agu/5a/. Bagdoi [lsi 'jpvrirai x.a.1 iroirflai, Ovalsig 6s /sgoTo/o/ /.at 

 (puaitihoyoi, Agvidui rs Tgog ttj (pugiXoyia, xcti ttjv rjQixriv (piXoeofiav uffxoueiv. " But among 

 all the Gauls, there are three classes of men who are held in especial honour, 

 Bards, Vates, and Druids. The Bards are singers and poets ; the Vates sacred 

 ministers and natural philosophers ; the Druids to physiology add the study of 

 moral philosophy." It was this sacred order that left its name to the poets and 

 prophets of ancient Italy. Now, the Cum. form of Vates is Ovid, written Ovydd, 

 of which we have the following explanation in Ow. Diet. : — " One who is initiated 

 into first principles or elements, a scientific personage, a natural philosopher, 

 a teacher of science, the name for a member of the scientific class, in the bardic 

 system. An ovate." Probably the name Ovidius is a derivative of the Cum. 

 Ovid. 

 Verus, " true, genuine, not false, not disguised." Cum. Gwir, " the pure fluid, the 

 ether, truth, right." In Latin also Verus had this meaning of right, as Ser- 

 vius says on the passage, Mn. 12. v. 694. — 



me Verius unum 

 Pro vobis fcedus luere et decernere ferro. 

 " Verius justius. — Verum enim quod rectum et bonum appellabant. Gwirod, a 

 derivative from Gwir, " the pure fluid," means strong unadulterated liquors of all 

 kinds. (See Ow. Diet.) Hence the connection of merus, noun, merum, with 

 Verus. The Greek aXnkia,, no concealment, transparency, agrees in meaning 

 with the Cum. Gwir. If the English, truth, come from the verb, to trow, as Horne 

 Took inferred, it is a memorable proof of barbarism in our Saxon forefathers, 

 and enough of itself to destroy all their ideas of truth and right. 



Vergo, " to incline, to bend to" Cum. Gwyro, " to make crooked, to bend, to swerve, 

 to go awry.'''' 



Viridis, " green, flourishing," Cum. Gwyrd. In the Cornish dialect, which, less harsh 

 and guttural, throws great light upon the cognate languages, it is Gwer, French 

 Ver-d. That Viridis had this form in Latin, appears not only from Ver, " the 

 green season," but from Verbena, " any green sod or tree," and Vervactum, 

 " ground ploughed down in the green sod," in opposition to stubble land. See 

 the word in Forcellini, and the mistake of Pliny there alluded to. 



Severus, " strict, severe, sharp ;" root, Chwevyr, " violence," Chwevri, " to act or 

 affect severely," Chwevryd, " a severe one." I have only time to allude to a 

 large class of words beginning with Chw, and which are found in Latin with an 

 S or V. Suffice it to give two examples : — 



Socer a father-in-law, in Cum. Chwegyr. The German Schwager means " a bro- 

 ther-in-law." When Homer wrote, either Chw, or Schw, was used, as can be 

 proved from <pi\s snugs, so well known 



P. 194. 



