1803. | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, . 
8 ioe an unfledged grammarian to 
requeft of fome of your more learned 
Correfpondents that information which he 
has vainly fought elfewhere. It is my 
misfortune to Jearn Latin under a matter 
who is much more -ready to inftruét with 
blows than with words (plagofus Orbilius 
the ufher fometimes calls him); and I 
have had a flap on the cheek for Fugeris, 
my ear pulled for Precis, my fhoulders 
caned for Frugi, &c. &c. &c. 
- Having, as -I thought, well ftudied 
Lily’s metrical rules, as corrected and im- 
proved in the Eton grammar, [ concluded 
(and who would not fo conclude,: until 
better informed?) that Fugéris and Précis, 
increafing /hort from Fuger and Prex, and 
not being among the exceptions, mu? ne- 
ceffarily be mafculine, by the rule, 
‘© Nomen, crefcentis penultima Si genitivi un. 
Sit gravis, ut Sanguis genitivo Sanguinis, eff 
t?> 
Mase 
but the mafter told me I was a ftupid 
blockhead, and enlightened my ignorance 
by the inftructive punifhments above- 
mentioned. 
As to Frugi, I thought it as clear as 
noon-day that it could not poflibly be 
otherwife than neuter: for, among the 
nouns ‘¢ guce nullum variant cafum,” we 
find Frugz one; and the rule, ‘* Sic in- 
variabile nomen,” pofitively pronounces 
it to be, on that account, neuter. My 
matter, however, aflerted it to be of the 
common of two; a:d in Ain:worth’s dic- 
tionary I found it fo. ‘The ufher, indeed, 
whifpered in my ear—for he was afraid 
the matter fheuld overhear him—that this 
was all fudge, and that the pretended ad- 
jective Frugi is only the dative cafe of the 
fubttantive Frux. 
Wow I beg to know the real gender of 
each of thofe words, and by what rule I am 
to prove it. 
Again—pray, whether was the Cyclops, 
who devoured the companions of Ulyfies, 
a male or a female ?—I always thought he 
had been a great he brute: but it feems 
that Cyclops, Cyclapis, increafing long, un- 
avoidably muff be feminine, fince it nei- 
ther is a proper name (any more than 
Gorgon or Amazon, which are claffed 
among the appellatives), nor included 
among the exceptions to the rule, 
** Nomen, crefcentis penultima fi genitivi 
Syllaba acuta fonat, velut hec—-Pietas pietatis, 
Virtus, virtitis—mnfrant, genus off muliebre.” 
If my conclufion be right, and the Cyclops 
really was a woman, has not her name 
> 
Queries—by Grammaticaster. 
431 
been hitherto wrong fpelled? and ought 
it not, inftead of Polyphemus, to be written 
Polly Phema? 
And the deralds of the ancient Romans 
—were not they lkewife women? for 
Fecialis, not being among the exceptions, 
mujt be feminine, by the rule, “ Nosmez, 
non crefcens.”’ Or had they male Feciales 
to denounce war, and females to make 
peace? If fo, I admire their profound 
policy, fince the fluent eloquence of a 
beautiful woman mnuft have been much 
more powerful to produce conwittion. in 
the minds of her hearers, than that of the 
moft eloguent male orator: and I am no 
longer furprifed that the Romans became 
malters of the world, fince the female ple- 
nipotentiaries, whom they delegated to 
treat of peace, could not fail to. obtain 
much better terms in their treaties, than 
would have been conceded to their rough, 
bearded hufbands. It was probably from 
fimilar motives of policy, that the French 
king (as I have heard my father Jay) once 
fent over to Engiand, as minifter plenipo- 
pentiary, a lady difguifed in male attire, 
under the title of the Chevalier D’ Eon, 
If I had an opportunity of communicating 
my thoughts to his Majelty’s privy-coun- 
cil, I. would take the liberty of tuggeft. 
ing, that whenever they come again to ne- 
gotiate with France, they likewife fhou!d, 
in imitation of the politic Romans, fend 
ladies for their plenipotentiaries, who 
will no doubt fueceed in obtaining much 
better terms, and a more lafting peace, 
than any male negotiators whom they 
can poflibly employ. 
Further—will any of your readers, in 
pity for my youth and inexperience, in- 
form me how I can, by barely looking at 
a Latin word, difcover whether it be of 
Greek origin or not? Muft I frit learn 
Greek, before I can determine the gender 
of a Latin noun? If not, what informa- 
tion or afliitance can I derive from therule, 
“¢ His jungas OS in US vertentia Greca ?”” 
Befices, when I have learned Greck, and 
can detect a Greek word in a Latin drefs, 
with as much eafe and certainty as the fo. 
licitor of the mint detects a counterfeit 
fhilling—how am J to underftand and ap- 
ply the rule? Is it general, or isnot? For, 
through my ignorance of that point, I have 
made feveral miftakes, for which my 
cheeks, or my ears, or my fhoulders, have 
fuffered. For example, having learned 
from one of my elder {chool-imates, that 
Apofiolus, Epifcopus, Diaconus, and Ange- 
lus, were words of Greek derivation, ori- 
ginally ending in OS, I naturally fet chem 
all down as teminines, agreeably to that 
3K 2 rule 
