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A TRACTATE

ON

LANGUAGE.

WITH

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FRENCH TONGUE, EASTERN TONGUES

AND TIMES,

AND CHAPTERS ON

LITERAL SYMBOLS, PHILOLOGY AND LETTERS, FIGURES
OF SPEECH, RHYME, TIME, AND LONGEVITY.

BY

GORDON WILLOUGHBY JAMES GYLL, ESQ.

OF WRAYSBURY, BUCKS.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

SECOND EDITION, AUGmented and revised.

Grammar is refined Logic.

DR. BLAIR.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

ALTHOUGH the writer of this Tractate should consider the preface already prefixed to the first edition of the work sufficient, yet on the appearance of a second edition, some reason might be expected why material changes have been made.

The author admits with regret that the first edition was not so aptly or uniformly adjusted in all its parts as consists with such a subject, and he felt he was capable of imparting to it that lucidus ordo, which a too hasty publication had prevented, although the manuscripts had lain by him for many years.

He has deemed it expedient to recast entirely the grammatical sections, and having so done, he commits them to the press in the hopeful assurance they may prove acceptable to the reader of a composition which includes a congeries of philosophical and grammatical observations.

The general principles, which are nearly the same as in the former edition, have been further illustrated by the help of some authority from comparatively recent publications, but which had been only cursorily perused by the author of the Tractate, viz. Welsford and Prichard.

Opinions advanced have been fortified, or addenda supplied, which might well find a niche in a treatise on grammatical phenomena.

What the author has derived from the above cited writers relates chiefly to the Sanskrit, and its affinity with the

Celtic race, an Eastern tribe and kindred with those nations who dwell in India, emigrants to the north and south of Europe, and from other tongues flowing from that source; and wherever he may have been defective in judgment or in aught essential to the enucleation of his subject, he has availed himself of casual suggestions, and has duly acknowledged his tributaries in this work.

A learned author thought it vain to look beyond Gothic for the origin of our language, but had he written in the present age of lingual scrutiny, he had admitted also an oriental fountain.

This work has been styled a Tractate, as being in the author's estimation less than an elaborate treatise on language, and more than an essay. Still, it contains all that is essential to realize the character and object of a book on this extensive theme. With this view it has been entirely remodelled, and some Chapters have been expanded to impart additional interest to what per se may be deemed unalluring and arid.

He trusts then that the supplementary matter will not be unacceptable, as bearing due reference to the principal aim of the publication.

The power of Literal Symbols being a constituent part of the wide arch of the ranged empire of language, he has much augmented this section, deducing proofs and illustrations from medals, inscriptions, synoptical tables, and also from a rare publication known as the Poecilographia Græca, a production on Greek contractions published in 1807, and mainly derived from the Palæographia Græca of Montfaucon, which was given to the world in 1708. See page 215 of the Tractate. This he trusts will be useful to the Student and Philologer.

The Chapters on Fragmentary observations on the French tongue, and on Eastern tongues and times, are

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

both germane to the subject of language. These he has revised and augmented.

The paper on Figures of Speech has increased a little in bulk, but it has been greatly improved in arrangement and exposition, and he trusts also in validity and importance; uniting phenomena of grammar with the graces of diction, both ancillary to the study of rhetoric.

The Essay on Rhyme is reprinted with a few addenda only, and this the writer thinks may be perused with advantage and profit by those who take interest in rhyming poetry, the offspring of a Gothic parent.

Two short tracts on Time and Longevity, are again annexed, and although the subjects can not be said strictly to belong to Language, yet the author deems it not irrelevant to have them appended to his brief essay on Tongues and Times.

That on Time gives a precis only of some prominent events in bygone ages, and on St. Peter's patrimony at Rome, whilst that on Longevity refers to the duration of life, (both comprising tellus et humanum genus) and especially adverting to the ages of learned men and those dedicated to literary and scientific professions.

As far as regards the purely grammatical part which terminates with the chapter on Comparison, all the author solicits is an ingenuous consideration of the principles and evidences advanced, every one of which he feels can be amply established, and if grammarians do not concur wholly in the conclusions, he thinks they can not overthrow them. As they have been considered and matured, he hopes readers will judge for themselves, and not merely endorse the opinions of routineer proxies. In this conviction the writer desires neither to repeal nor modify them. The character of this work being illustrative, he relies on the verdict of sterling judgment for justification in the necessity for the frequent citations made and testimonies adduced to support positions.

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