The Sun.
London, England, 1818-10-22 00:00:00

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I\TI-TDrutit 81'54.1/ TI-lITIISDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1818.

LITERARY REVD EW.

OBSERVATIONS introductory to a WORt. on ENGLISH
ETYMOLOGY. By JOHN TitomsoN, M.A.S. andllate Pri-
vate Secretary to the Martinis of HAST4INGS, Governur-
General of

The English language has attained an elevated
and enviable height among the languages of Europe.
Its capacity for adaptation to science, its vigour in
reasoning, anff flexibility in poetry and eloquence,
prove its richness and extent. These are great
effects from incidental causes, in which the love
of letters had little or no participation. From a
view of the history of our language, we are sur-
prised s‘ct much has been done toward its comple-
tion, and take pride iu the. possession of that
which is at once so elegant, dignified, and com-
prehensive. As all human pursuits and acquire-
wents, trout their mutability, can scarcely admit
pertectioo, whatever approaches nearest to sim-
plicity and truth should be received and cherish-
ed. it is not Mentions to reflect that our language
is, perhaps, the least original of any in Europe,
which leads inquiry to the different stores from
whence it has been drawn, and to the gradations
of its advancement. With the 'exception of the
late Mr. Horne Tooke, much cannot be said to
have been attempted in developing the radical and
elementary parts of our speech. Lexicographers
usually have satisfied themselves with excursions
but little beyond what arc defined to be classical
boundaries, and have paused where their labour
might have begun to be useful to true Philology.
We are led to these remarks by the present
work, recently published, to the publicity of
which we give our aid with pleasure, and in-
vite the critical attention of men to its analysis,
who love to walk or wander in the labyrinth of
oral communications, affinities-, and connections.
This work professes to be no more titan intro-
ductory to another work, which has not yet ap-
peared ; we must, therefore, 'confine ourselves to
what the author has given, which, in reality, is
not so much an introduction to Etymology as it
is etymological, and it creates an anxiety for the
publication of that to which it is but a pre-
cursor.

The object of these " Observations," and of the
work to which they are introductory, is, we are told,
to (race the probable origin, to mark adventitious
changes, and to indicate the principal analogies
of British words ; a task of no easy accomplish-
tnent. These British words, the author asserts,
are derived from the Gothic and Celtic, chiefly
through rite Anglo-Saxon and French dialects ;
and, as we -ktlow the barbarism that pervaded the
Anglo-Saxon and French dialects, it is not a
cheering labour to force a road through these,
to search for roots in languages still nrore remote,
and not less barbarous. Discouraging as this
would be to ordinary enquirers, and copious as
must be the learning for any, the author does
not assume that rank in literature which all will
be 'ready to give him, who regard his simultane-
ous acquirements. Fume he considers as a hope-
less consequence, and pecuniary returns as less
than nothing, ivhen balanced against many years
of labour and expenditure. • It he look to neither
fame nor profit, his impulse must be the love of
letters, and of public good.
IWe avoid entering into critical examination on
the general merits or imperfections of this little
'volume, I•eaving that to abler men ; yet we would
'acknowledge the gratification we have enjoyed
from the perusal of its diversified and novel
matter.

FOR THE SUN.

i3EAUTIES OF ‘SHAKSPEAR,

It is not the least remarkable in this great
minded man, that he makes his characters speak
and act peculiar to their situation. He opens all
tie passions, and, like Homer, describes them as
if we heard and saw them. This is a knowledge
•df the heart which exceeds all we ever read be-
fore. In my former 1 gave general. instances
which bear internal evidence of this indisputable
truth. In the words of Horace, to make us feel,
he first felt himself—Si-me vis flere dolendum est ad
primum. Who can pass over the following with-
out emotion ; they arrest attention, and bid it
stop

" Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the tint motion, all the interi►n is
Like a phantasma or an hideous dream ;
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection."—,Julius Cfr.rar.
" 'inset) proved that with devation's visage,
And pions action, we do sugar u'►rr
The devil himself."—flankt.
"The woiid is still deceived with ornament;
In Lay. what plea so minted and corrupt,
But being seasuri'd with a gracious voice
(Thsei yes the ►ihew of 'evil. Religion
What danuo:d error, lint some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text.
Iliding the grossness with fair ornament;
There is no voice• so simple but assumes
Souse mark of virtue on its outward port."—Mer..j. Yen.
'' What stronger hreast-plate than a 'heart untainted!
Thrice is he armed that bath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, tho' lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."
Hen. YI. p. 2.

e historical part, relating to language, con-
tained in these " Observations," is, undoubtedly,
instructive and amusing, although the subject
admits of nothing to enliven the fancy, and but
little to warm the mind. In pursuit of Etymology
we perpetually labour, only at last to arrive at a
barrier, where our career is at an end, and where
even imagination closes. We call a language ori-
ginal when we know not of any antecedent, and
while that language may..have been, at best. but
a distorted image and oorrupt modification of on-
other more deep in anti9uity, which was itself
an imperfect offspring of one still more remote.
Yet tart her we cannot proceed, and we must he
satisfied with calling that the root which might
have been no better than a ramification front the
parent stock. To turn this to some advantage
is all that can he hoped for, and this our author
seems to have done: he has developed, with mo-
dest address, the relations of many languages, and
drawn ages closer together, between which time
had interposed obscurity, and almost precluded
recognition.

"The first bringer of unwelcomed news
Hat h but a loosing other ; and his tongue
Sonnds ever after as a sullen bell,
Itcmembeed tolling a departed friend."—lrm
" I'd rather he a kitten, and 'cry mew,
Than one of these same.liallad-monger c ;
I'd rather hear ft brazen candlestick turn'd,
Or a ilrY'ci wheel grote on the axletree,
And that would nothing set my teeth an edge ;
Nothing so flinch as minein; poetry ;
"Tis like the force gait of a. shnfiting
" Fling away ambition !
By that sin angels fell ; how can roan then,
The image of his Maher, hope to win by it'
Love t hyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee,
Corruption wins not more tlnpi honesty,
Still in thy hand carry gentle vv2ce,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not."
Henry 1711.
"Thi% is the state of man ; to-day he putted) forth
The tender leave; of hope ; to-morrow blossoms,
And hears his blitshing honours thick upon hint;
The third day conies x frost, a tiimaine frost,
And nips the rout of all his greatness."—lbiL
" are such stuff as dreamt are made of,
And our little life is rounded by asleep."
" Welcome ever smiles ; and farewell goes out
Sighing. The end crowns all, and that old cmumon
Arbitrator Time, will one day end it."*--Troil. Cressid.
" How sweet the moon-light sleeps upon that bank."
Me-Murat of' rettice.
" They are its sick that surfeit with too much,
As they that starve with nothing."—?'roil. •
" Ile jests at scars who never felt a wound."—Romeo.
" Prosperity is the bind of love."--JPixtrr's• Tale.
" Dirt for your words, they'rob the bylila 'bees
Wall their swectites4, and leave them hooeviess"
Cipsnr.
TASTE,
go be eozitinued)

We do not offer extracts from the " Observa-
tions,” as we would not appear to mark prefe-
rences, while the whole emphatically demands at-
tention. Had scholars like the author appealed
even every hundred years, we should now be en-
abled to travel through antiquity with ease and
certainty, and the liyerogliphic and the °Otani
would be legible and intelligent. Cnitoms, man-
ners, habits, mysteries, sports, and superstition
would no longer exercise the fancy or subtlety of
antiquaries, and certainty woold preside where
ingenuity too often only generates doubt. hough
we give no extracts, %A re would direct the general
reader to the four list pages, where he will find
awnsement curiously blendr-d with information.
We would not, however, conceal that an et ror,
in our opinion, pervades the whole of this little
volume, an error of which the mass of writer*
are but too little guilty; namely, a too great coin-
-laession of natter; which, from whatever cause
it may have arisen, calls for an excess of atten-
tion in the reader. The work most command
ninny eaitions ; and hence we venture to orf:1
this temark to the ingeoious author, in hope to
facilitate general no:tiling; we think we perceive
itt the cwalpits uf this work, 4114 A: sty

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[PRICE SEVENPENCF:

in the author, or, perhaps, an appreheosiol or
fear of an opposite kind, and a desire to avoid
superfluous display of words, while he cw fines
himself to treat of words. This motive nay ba
good, but condensity is too prevalent, and cou-
lequctitly imbeneficial. .Here are planted nunte-
rfnis exotics, in too confined a space, by %%hich
their best display, though not quite concealed, is
injured ; their t4rtieric characters are not so cvi.
dent as if they were more separated and distinct,
and their beauties are necessarily of leis easy
access.

FOR THE SUN.

THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

Ma. EntToa,—l observe in your agreeable
;1 lii-
cellauy Tire SUN, that you entertain tears for the
safety of the Established Church, even as it they
were for the ark of Israel; and that you offer it as a
receptacle for the effusions of its Clergy. I ad-
mire your motive, which is loyal and patriotic,
but do not accord with your appnbension of its
danger. Built as it is upon a rock, abundant in.
revenue, and extensive in patronage, pure in its
hierarchy, and protected by the State, mild in its
doctrine, and tolerant to all, rearing its mi:red.
front beneath the Crown, I think that all the evil
spirits in the infernal regions, with Papists
and Protestant dissenters huddled together in an
army Of martyrs cannot prevail against it. I
know that its tolerance has occasioned all sorts of
Sectaries, who have separated from it, to distract
end terrify the ignorant, which is their delight.
and draw them to their own enclosures. This
may be attributed to its indulgence, but never can
be a reproach to its liherality, though unhappily
:be more it has shewn it to its enemies, the mote
lutve they encteased, like vipers biting the bosom
that cherishes them. But what is their obj ct ?--
Power to do mischief! It is not religion ; for
whether the people be Jews or Gentiles, Matto-
metans or Barbarians, is no concern with I' eat.
h is what they call political liberty, meaning a
liberty to do as they in their overweening super-
snfliciency please, that they contend for, end iii
the end to overturn the Government iu Chutels
and State; then to set up a model of their own
for the pretended salvation of each, or., in triter
words, the total abolition of both. In this tem-
per I compare them to venomous insec:s, who die
by the emission of, their own poison ; and there-
fore the snore they are left to themselves, the
weaker they will grow. According to the pro-
verb, give them rope enough, and they will en-
tangle themselves, become suicides, or, wanting
courage, die of a lingering mortification, tinpi kit
and forgotten. Wiry then sound an alarm that
the Church is in danger ? I verily believe it is not,
and that it is its own defence against the ll,vil
and all his friends. It is certainly kind in you to
offer your columns for the use of the national
Clergy, but Ido not see what good it will do. It
may provide you Correspondents from all the
counties in the kingdom, to the exclusion of
others, who, to fill up an idle hour otter dinner,
or before they smoke their pipes, would embody
their thoughts on paper, in support of their
own Itinciions, and thence weary you with their
multiplication. THE SUN WOuld then indeed be
the Parson's Journal, to which I should have no
objection ; if it contained an Essay front any of
them, once in a month.

I am, your Friend, and a Friend to Tna SUN,
which tt Laity of my acquaintance calls iiv
Evening Pianfolilet,

TERILE FILIUS.

:;/

" Extract of a Letter, dated Cape Henry, Sept.
6:—" A most serious accident has happened to
Citadel Henry, that magnificent btructitre havHg
been struck by lightning, and set on fire, to the
utter destruction of many of its buddings,
they with loss Of stores and arnmiinitoin. This
place is the King's st:ong-hold, and dernitr resort
iu case of invasion, and where all his treisure is
Boarded ; he has never 1 Est sight of its tat! r ,ce-
ment for the last 12 years ; it is better known by
the former name of Fort Terrier. Many lives
were lost, and among others the Queen's brother
perished in the flames. Every person wears black
crape, and r.ll the women arc ordered to attend
mass every day, for 14 days, barefooted, and icy
white dresses. It is suprosed that the new crops
will suffer much by the aff,ir, as every man ca-
pable of carrying stone or lime is nut into requi-
sition, in order to rebuild the fortress. The King'
has taken up his quarters there, and will not quit
it till finished."

On Thursday se'nnight a Gentleman from the
country left a house in the High-street, Perth,
about I I o'clock at night, With ftc of
returning to his lodgings ; but basing inistakilk
his way, he only discovered he ...a, of the
right direction, by finding himself, all of a slid-
den, snuggling in the river. Atter an ineffectual
attempt to regain the bank, he had sufficient pie..
senre of mind to throw himself upon his back,
and allow himself to be carried gently down the
•ttem, while he called out lustily for assistance.
In this very critical and dangerous situation be
floated down the river (which was a good deal,
flooded at the time), till he cattle Opposite to the
New Shore, where his cries roused a dog on board
of a lighter, in which were twomen heldw in
bed. Awakened by the balking of the animal,
the men immediately got upon deck, awl made
all haste with a boat to tue,place from which toe
cries of distress proceeded, and, fortunately tor
the ,iringer, Et-idled it in time to sa‘e his
He sv.is ininiedi.ttely conveyed on board the
lighter, where he tentained for the night. Next
muroii:g he was so far recovered as to be able to
return to his friends in town, and give them an
iccuunt of his perilous adventure.---( Edinburi4
!Julian)