Work itself; tho' Camden, and Milton, 129, tell us, that the "Saxons are thought by good writers to be defcended of the Saca, a kind of Scythian in the North of Afia; thence called Sacafons, contracted to Saxons, or fons of Saca, who with a flood of other Northern (Afiatic) nations, came into Europe, and using piracy from Denmark all along thofe feas, poffeffed all that coaft of Germany, and the Netherlands, which took thence the name of Old Saxony." Probable as this opinion may at first fight appear, it does not seem to be the true one; for, "to to examine the lykelyhood of this," fays Verftegan, 18, "wee are to note, that the Saxons did neuer wryte, or call themfelues Saxons, but anciently Seaxen; and the fyllable en, at the end of woords, doth ferue instead of s, to fignify the plural number; as in brethren, children, oxen :"-and then in p. 21 and 2, he endeavours to fhew, that they were the Aborigines, or natives of Germany; which is only confefling his ignorance of their origin; but however he admits, that they received a different appellation from their neighbours in the Cimbrica Cherfonefus, and, for the fake of diftinction, were called Saxons from the weapons they wore: only here again, as we observed above, the appellation is Greek; as will be found in the Work itself. To prove now the short-lived tranquillity of human affairs, when they rely for protection on foreign arms, and call over foreigners to defend them, the Saxons from being protectors, very foon became invaders, and presently fent over for five thousand more of their countrymen; and then entering into an alliance with the Picts and Scots, thofe very people whom they came over on purpose to drive out, turned their fwords against the Britons, thofe very people whom they had been invited over to defend !-To folve this intricacy, Verftegan seems to hint, that "the Britons were grown into great auerfion from their kyng, and no Lefs hatred vnto the Saxons; feeing that kyng Vortiger, a British kyng, had married Rowena, a Saxon lady, and neice to one of their generals, and had left his lawful wyf *”. This indeed would have been provocation enough to have juftified a revolt in the Britons, and for them to have joined the Picts and Scots against the Saxons; or at least an inducement fufficiently ftrong to have prompted the Saxons to have adhered to the intereft of their hoft, united to them now the more firmly by the bonds of wedlock; and confequently to have fupported his caufe against that of his rebellious fubjects: on the contrary, the good old gentleman himself tells us, p. 130, that " on May day, both Vortiger and Hengift met on Salisburie plaine, either of them accompagned with his chiefeft lordes and followers; and there kyng Hingiftus prepared for them a feast; and after the Britans were wel whitled with wyne, he fell to taunting and girding at them; wherevpon blowes infued; and the British nobillitie there prefent, beeing in all three hundreth, were all of them flaine; as VVilliam of Malmesburie reporteth; tho' others make the number more." Whatever truth there may be in this narration, the conduct of the Saxons appears rather perfidious, and feems to wear the face of treachery: perhaps the Saxons at this entertainment might have despised the weakness both of prince and nobles; and confequently might have looked on this as a proper opportunity Nennius, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Geoffry of Monmouth, Speed, and Sammes, with much greater probability, call Rowena the daughter of Hengift: and Shering. 14, adds yet another reafon for this revolt; viz. "quòd debitum militibus ftipendium non perfolverant." for for re-afferting their native right, and for reviving their antient hereditary, clame to this island; if they were fenfible of any fuch title;-but let their clame or their title have been ever fo juft, this certainly must have a very unjuftifiable method of vindicating it; and let the reafon for this maffare have been whatever it might, the confequences of it were very dreadful to the nation; for this is an undoubted fact, that for near two hundred years following, this kingdom was a continued scene of defolation and confufion: the Saxons however prevailed in the end; and the few Britons, who furvived thofe troubles, betook themfelves for refuge to the wild and craggy mountains of Cornwal and of Wales. But, notwithstanding the Saxons had thus gained firm footing and fure establishment on this ifland, fuch an event ought not certainly to have been deemed a fufficient foundation for Verftegan to affert, as he does in p. 188, that the Saxon or Teutonic remains the ground of our language, and that it has had for its original no other fource:"-in which affertion he is moft probably mistaken; for if conqueft alone be a fufficient argument for the establishing of any language, it might be worth while to ask him, and all our other Saxon advocates, what language they can fuppofe, and allow, that the inhabitants of this ifland fpoke, after they had been converfant with the R-mans for five hundred years before the Saxons were invited over to Britain what could it have been, but the British, improved by the Roman ? for, as Milton acknowledges, p. 60, "the Romans beate us into fom civilitie:" and, to bring the argument nearer to his own. times; if the Saxon or Teutonic was the ground of our language, because they drove out the Britons, then in his own times the Norman must have been the ground of our language, because the Normans drove out the Saxons in short, the language of this island is a mixture of all thefe; being compounded of these, and many others: but the ground-work of our modern English tongue is Greek; and fo it was even in the days of Verstegan. If then there are any words in our language, at this day to be found likewife in the Saxon tongue, they feem probably to be fuch, as they found here, eftablished and manumifed long before their arrival, and perhaps were adopted by themselves afterwards; and what makes this fuppofition the more probable is, that most of thofe words, which other etymologifts have imagined to be Saxon, and many of the Saxon words themselves, are really in the courfe of this Work found to be Greek *; and therefore, that those etymologifts, who would derive those words only from the Saxon tongue, do really ftop fhort of their true derivation by at least two thousand years: for what Cafaubon fays in p. 378, is most justly true: ut dicam libere, quod fentio: pauca puto vere et genuine Anglica five Saxonica, i. e. vetera, reperiri; quæ (iis exceptis quæ Latinæ funt originis) fi ritè, et diligenter expendantur, non poffint ad Græcos fontes revocari." Whoever is acquainted with that intricate and unaffecting part of our English * As to the ftructure of the Saxon tongue, Cafaubon, p. 139, pofitively afferts, "eam vel Græcæ, fed ab ultimâ origine, propaginem fuiffe; vel certe ab eâdem, quâ et Græca, origine, ut à Græcâ fola differt dialecto, profluxiffe:" and Spelman, in his Gloffary, under the article V Vic, acknowledges the fame; "Saxonicæ dictiones frequentius Græcis refpondeant, quam Romanis:"-and not the Saxon only, but the German likewife; for Cafaubon, 218, fays, "ultimum nunc fupereft argumentum; quod ab hiftoriâ, et rerum geftarum memoriâ: ego fic cenfeo: fi funditus periiffet lingua Germanica, ut nullum ex verbis argumentum duci poffit; ex ipfarum tamen rerum geftarum, quæ memoriæ mandatæ funt, circumftantiis probabiliter inferri poffe, linguam Germânicam de Græcâ multum traxiffe, et ex illâ partim conftitiffe." 3 history, hiftory, which treats of the Saxon Heptarchy, will presently allow, that the manners of the men were as rude as their language; and that the whole race of kings, as they are called, from Hengift to Egbert, a space of time comprehending 345 or 350 years, were a race of the most favage and brutal kind of men, and were really as uncivilized as the wild Indians in America: and that even after the Heptarchy was diffolved, and all the feven crowns were united on the head of Egbert, in 800 after Chrift; yet even from him to Harold II. i. e. 266 years more, they were very little better; unlefs the building of monafteries, making pilgrimages to Rome, and kings and queens turning monks and abbeffes, could atone for the fhedding of human blood by affaffination: for their whole history, except that of Alfred the Great, and two or three others, is taken up with very little more, than the narrations of battles, and murders, and maffacres, with poifonings, and rapes, and incefts, and adulteries; "altars defiled with perjuries; cloisters violated with fornications; the land polluted with the blood of their princes; civil diffentions among the people; and finally, all the fame vices, which the mournful Gildas alleged of old to have ruined the Britons :" Milton, 221 :and yet it is from thefe very people that we have received a set of the wifest laws, and a conftitution of the best government, that is to be found at this day fubfifting on the face of the earth;-perhaps their very vices were conducive to the establishing of thofe laws; which have continued, with fome small variation, and a very great addition, from Hengist the first king of Kent, in the year 455 after Chrift, to the prefent times; i. e. above 1300 years. Neither did Egbert and his fucceffors enjoy a quiet poffeffion; for the Danes made feveral desperate descents on this ifland, fo early as the year 787, and continued their inhuman and bloody moleftations for above two hundred years, when Canute, a Dane, feized the whole kingdom in 1017; however their domination of 25 years ended in 1942, when the Saxon line was again restored; but continued only 24 years longer; when William, the Norman, commonly called William the Conqueror, became fole monarch of this kingdom in 1066. So that now, we will look towards Iceland. VI. Of the ICELANDIC, and other Northern dialects. Having mentioned the Germans, Saxons, and Danes, it may be proper now to say something on the Icelandic tongue; fince fome etymologifts have endeavoured to deduce many of our words from that, and the other Northern tongues, which are only fo many different dialects of the Germanic nations. Some have imagined, that when Christianity began to prevail in this ifland, the every where perfecuted Druids retreated, as to their fureft place of refuge, to Iceland:-this opinion is either wrong, or this perfecution could not have been carried on against them by the Chriftians; for Christianity was not known, or if known, did not bear any great prevalence in this nation, till the times of Austin the monk; about the year 600 after Chrift: it is true indeed we find mention made in the early part of our hiftory, that, Jofeph of Arimathea came over into this. ifland, fo early as the year 31 after Chrift; and that Lucius was the firft Chriftian king, about the year 200; and that Conftantine publickly declared himself a convert to the Chriftian faith, about the year 320: but the perfecution of the Druids was was commenced long before that very period by Paulinus Suetonius, in the 61 after Chrift *. year On the other hand: if the Druids, thofe adepts in all the learning, both civil and religious, which was known in thofe early times, had actually retired to Iceland, when they were forced to retreat from Britain, it is fomething remarkable, that the sciences in Iceland fhould have been but in a state of infancy fo late as the year 1056, which is only ten years before the Norman conqueft; while Britain had enjoyed the benefit of letters above 1100 years, and the benefit of the Gospel above 450, or, according to others, 736 years before that period: for Dr. Finnæus, the learned bishop of Skalholt, in his Ecclefiaftical History of Iceland, published in 1772, compares the ftate of the sciences in Iceland to the Four ages of human life: "their infancy," fays he, "extended to the year 1056; when the introduction of the Chriftian religion produced the first dawn of light: -they were in their youth till 1110; when schools were first established, and the education and inftruction of youth began to be more attended to than before:-the manly age lafted till about the middle of the 14th century; when Iceland produced the greatest number of learned men :-old age appeared towards the end of the fame century; (fhort duration !) when the sciences gradually decreased, and were almost intirely extinct; no works of any merit appearing; history now drooped her head; poetry had no relish; and all the other sciences were enveloped in darkness; the schools began to decay; and in many places they had none at all; it was very uncommon for any to understand Latin; and few priests could read their breviary and rituals fluently :"-such is the account which this learned bishop has given us of the state of learning in Iceland †. Whether or no there has been a refufcitation of learning in Iceland, within these two or three centuries laft paft, as we very happily find there has been in our own nation, I have not as yet been able to learn; but this is a truth that may be very fafely admitted, that if there are any number of words in our language, in common with the inhabitants of Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sueden, Germany, or any of the other Northern dialects, it will be evidently found, in the courfe of confulting the following Work, that they are either all, or most of them, derived, both to them, and to ourselves, thro' the medium of the Greek and Latin languages; thofe two being the origin or chief compofition of most European tongues, except in fome few particulars; and it is from those two languages chiefly, that we are poffeffed of all that copiousness of expreffion, and all that fluency of words, which are to be found in the writings of our best poets, and the speeches of our beft orators: and indeed it is no wonder that these two fhould be the main fources of the English language, fince, as we have feen, the Romans had been fuch powerful actors in the British affairs, for five hundred years before the arrival of the Saxons; and that very probably the Greeks had been here at least a thousand years before the Romans. * And yet Stowe, p. 38, mentions the convertion of many of the Druydes to the Christian faith in the time of Lucius about 179, or rather 200 after Chrift. + It is much to be feared, this melancholy reprefentation of the ftate of the sciences in Iceland may be. applied much nearer home; for they do not feem to have been in a more florishing fituation, even 200 years after that very period, in our own ifland; for that would fall in very nearly with the times of Henry VIII. when an old monk, who had conftantly in his breviary read Mumpfimus, Domine, for Sumpfimus, was admonifhed to correct his abfurd expreffion; "No," fays he, "no; I have read it fo for above these fifty years paft; and fhall not now change my good old Mumpfimus, for your newfangled Sumpfimus. Whenever Whenever therefore we find any words at prefent fubfifting in our language, fimilar in found, but undoubtedly the fame in fignification, or very nearly fo, with others in the Greek tongue, why should we at all hefitate to deduce their origin from thence; or be afhamed as it were at finding our modern English derived from fo antient and fo honourable a nation?-why then do our etymologists stop short of this great fountain, and endeavour to deduce their derivations from the muddy dialects, and impure branches of all the harfh, grating, Northern tongues, instead of tracing, following, and perfuing their etymologies thro' the main course of that most noble language, the Greek, which would infallibly lead them to the true origin of their own? The study and cultivation therefore of the Greek and Roman languages would be a far more rational, and a far more advantageous employment for Englishmen, as Englishmen, than the addreffing themfelves fo much to the French tongue; which has arisen of late to so great a degree, that they have in a manner almoft totally neglected the cultivation of their own mother tongue, to adopt that of foreigners:- this fondness for the French, even fo high up as the times of Edward the Confeffor, in 1051, was carried to fo great a height, that it actually paved the way for the Norman conqueft, as Milton obferves in p. 330; "then began the English to lay aside their own antient cuftomes, and in many things to imitate French manners; the great peers to speak French in their houses; in French to write their bills, and letters, as a great piece of gentility, afhamed of their own; a prefage of their fubjection fhortly to that people, whose fashions and language they affected fo flavishly:"-how fatally applicable may this prediction be to ourselves, even at this prefent period!" if these were the caufes,' continues he, p. 357, "of fuch mifery and thraldom to thofe of our ancestors, at the Norman conqueft, with what better close can be concluded, than here in fit season to remember this age, in the midst of her fecurity, to fear from like vices, without due amendment, the revolution of like calamities!" To fum up this argument; let us just take a short retrospective view of the foregoing events, and their dates; which will moft evidently prove the great antiquity of the Greek tongue; and at the fame time fhew us the periods very nearly when the other European languages commenced in this island: I. The EGYPTIANS colonized GREECE, under the following leaders : 1. Egialeus, who founded the kingdom of Sicyon 2. Inachus, who founded the kingdom of Argos and, 4. Cecrops, who founded the kingdom of Athens Bef. Chrift. 2079 1856 1855 1556 II. The GREEKS colonized ITALY, under the following leaders : |