and between both of these, as far as they are proper, and such as belong to a still lower class, being mere corruptious, cant terms, or puerilities. "Many ancient customs, other. wise unknown or involved in obscurity, come also to be explained or illustrated, from the use of those words which necessarily refer to them. The importance of any thing pertaining to the manners of a nation, as constituting one of the principal branches of its history, needs not to be mentioned; and, as the knowledge of ancient man. ners removes the obscurity of language, by a reciprocal operation, ancient language often affords the best elucidation of manners. "Such a dictionary, if properly conducted, should not only throw light on the ancient customs of Scotland, but point out their ana. logy to those of other northern nations. So striking indeed is the coincidence of manners, even in a variety of more minute instances, between our ancestors and the inhabitants of Scandinavia, as marked by the great similarity or absolute sameness of terms, that it must necessarily suggest to every impartial inquirer, that the connexion between them has been much closer than is generally supposed. "Language, it is universally admitted, forms one of the best criterions of the origin of a nation; especially where there is a deficiency of historical evidence. Our country must ever regret the want, or the destruction, of written records. But an accurate and comparative examination of our verna cular language may undoubtedly in part repair the loss; as well as throw considerable light on the VOA L. faint traces which history affords, with respect to the origin of those, who for many centuries have been distinguished from the Celtic race, as speaking the Scottish language. "I do not hesitate to call that the Scottish language, which has generally been considered in no other light than as merely on a level with the different provincial dialects of the English. Without entering at present into the origin of the former, I am bold to affirm, that it has as just a claim to the designation of a peculiar language as most of the other languages of Europe. From the view here given of it to the public, in the form of an ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY, it will appear that it is not more nearly allied to the English, than the Belgic is to the German, the Danish to the Swedish, or the Portuguese to the Spanish. Call it a dialect, if you will; a dialect of the Anglo-Saxon it cannot be: for, from the dissertation, prefixed to the Dictionary, it must appear to the unprejudiced reader, that there is no good reason for supposing that it was ever imported from the southern part of our island." If the only end of writing were to promote the advancement and diffusion of general knowledge and general entertainment, to make. learned men and philosophers, and to present a species of entertain.. ment worthy of learned men and philosophers, accomplished citizens of the world, the republic of letters would not suffer any great detriment, though the Scottish language and Scottish literature were consigned to everlasting oblivion. But this is not the only end of li terature. An end of equal, and, R to in a moral point of view, perhaps greater importance, is the tendency it has to wean men from the gross ness of sensual appetites and desires, and to improve their social sympathies and sensibilities, snatch them from the imperious importunity of present objects, and to enlarge, as it were, the sphere of their existence, by extending their views over the remote and the past, as well as the near and the present. Whatever is fitted to al lure men into such paths is highly beneficial. The span of life might be better employed by Scotchmeu, were their only object advancement in knowledge, in read. ing books written in other languages than their own. But since for one Scotchman inclined to read such books, there must be an hundred at least more inclined to read books in their own or the language of their forefathers, and relating to their own country, and who, if Scottish books were not unfolded to them, would not read at all; except the Bible with Commentaries, Boston's Fourfold State, the Pil grim's Progress, and histories of the persecutions of the Kirk.-Since the sphere of the mere Scotchman's reading must be vastly enlarged, and the number of Scotch readers vastly increased by so masterly a key to the language of his forefa. thers, Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymo. logical Dictionary, has done a very great, and, we presume, a very ac ceptable service to his countrymen. The AUD SCOTTISH language is very expressive, as indeed every language is to those who are inti. mately acquainted with the customs, manners, and allusions in which its peculiar idioms are found. ed. And the old Scottish writers, particularly the poets, as abun dantly appears from Dr. Jamie. son's quotations, cannot but afford to all who readily enter into the language, and fully understand it, a very high degree of entertain. ment. The Lowland Scots, even the lower classes, or what in France and other countries are called peasants, have a great turn for reading. It is very common now, or certainly it was so about 30 or 40 years ago, when any very striking occurrence happened in the neighbourhood, particularly if it was of a ludicrous kind, such as an ill as. sorted or ludicrously conducted marriage, for even the women to make verses on the subject. One woman, sitting at her spinning. wheel, would make one or two verses or rhymes. These were repeated to others, who would add one or two couplets more, and so on, till, at last, a piece was pro duced little less droll than the famous ballad of “Fie, let us all to the Wedding," &c. This may, perhaps, be considered as a kind of argu. ment, though not indeed a very strong one, of their affinity to the Scandinavians, who have a great turn this way, as all writers agree. Some very curious specimens of Finnish poetry, by rustics, or common people occupied in rural affairs, are to be found in Signior Giuseppe Acerbi's Travels to the North Cape, translated into English, and published by Mawman. The Swedes too, of all ranks, have a very great turn for literature. Parochial schools were established in Sweden long before their establishment in Scotland: nay even schools of a higher order in the different districts, to which the youth repaired, from the parochial school, school, preparatorily to their going to the university; and the best scholars were sent there, if the circumstances of their parents re. quired it, at the public expense. In Iceland, the very poorest of the people can read, write, and cast accounts; the children are taught, by their parents at home, the country being too wide, and thinly peo. pled for public schools. Next to the importance of this Dictionary, just noticed, in nou. rishing a taste for reading among all classes of Scotchmen, and per. haps among some English in the northern counties, is the use it must be of to lawyers. The sound. ness of Dr. Jamieson's remark on this point will not be questioned. With regard to the eternal Pictish question, the dispassionate, moderate, and sepsible manner in which Dr. Jamieson treats this sub. ject, forms a direct contrast with the dogmatism of Macfarlane, the rudeness and the waspishness of the Goth Pinkerton, and the petulance, and blind presumption and arrogance of Chalmers, He has shewn, in a clear and able manner, that between our ancestors and the inhabitants of Scandinavia there has been a closer connexion than is generally supposed; that there is a very great variety of words in the mouths of the vulgar in Scotland, that had never passed through the channel of the Anglo-Saxon, or been spoken in England, although still used in the languages of the North of Europe; that the Scottish is not to be viewed as a daugh. ter of the Anglo-Saxon, but as, in common with the latter, derived from the Gothic; and that no sa tisfactory account can otherwise be given of the VULGAR LANGUAGE Of Scotland. † Dr. Jamieson also il. lustrates the Scandinavian origin of the Picts, from the evidence of his torians, from Julius Cæsar and Tacitus to the venerable Bede and downwards, and from the history and architecture of the Orkney Islands. In this course he has at every turn to encounter Mr. Chal. mers, who pays no regard to the testimony of Eeiher, Tacitus, ‡ or Bede, or to any one else, or to any cir This writer has, ir his latest publications, exchanged the rudeness of the Goth for the livery of Gibbon. + About 20 years ago, Grim Thorkelyn, a native of Iceland, professor of antiquities and law in the university, and keeper of the royal archives at Copenhagen, travelled, as a literary missionary from Denmark, for three or four years in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with some of the adjacent islands. He was greatly struck with the coincidence between a great number of words of the same signification, not only in Scotland, but in Northumberland and Yorkshire, and the Icelandic or antient Gothic. He was at the pains, at the request of a literary friend, to write down a list of them, which was published in the first or 8vo. edition of captain Newte's Tour in Scotland. The argument of Tacitus, froin the striking resemblance between the Cale douians and the Germans, will have additional weight, when it is considered that it was more likely that the Belgia, or Goths, or by whatever name they might have originally been distinguished, should pass over directly in ships, from what was called the Saron shores, and the Cimbric Chersonesus, to Northumberland and Scotland, than through England; for navigation is one of the earliest of the arts, and we are expressly told by Cesar, that the northern nations had strong ships, and were bold sailors. cumstance that militates against his own system. Dr. Jamieson lays Mr. Chalmers, whom he calls a learned writer! completely on the ground in every encounter, and exposes the whimsicalness of his far-fetched derivations, and the inconclusiveness and absurdity of his reasoning, in the most satisfactory manner. It is of no great importance to observe, but we cannot help wondering, that Dr. Jamieson should never have visited Abernethey, long the seat of learning, the Jc. rusalem, the holy city of the seceders, as well as the capital of the Picts in Scotland. We find him in the 28th page of his dissertation, talking of the "spires of Abernethey and Brechin;" there is indeed a spire on the round tower, at Brechin; but there is not a spire, nor any vestige indicating that there ever was a spire, on the round tower of Abernethey. Letters from a late eminent Prelate to one of his Friends. Pp. 510, 8tv. THE HE eminent prelate is the late Warburton, bishop of Glouces. ter, and his friend, the late Hurd, bishop of Worcester. The writings of the great Warburton, though some of them paradoxical and sophistical,* display, on the whole, the highest degree of bold and inventive genius, an elevated and vigorous mind, the most profound knowledge of history and of human nature, and the true spirit of philosophical criticism. How finely does the bishop recon cile certain apparent contradictions in the introduction to the Catali narian war of Sallust, and justify the praises that were bestowed on that noble historian? "Crispus Romana primus in his toria." Who, in the walks of history, first broke the enchantment of prodi. gies and miracles, and explored the true causes of things? How subtle, yet how just his observations on the causes of that love of the mar vellous, so incident to historians, and so plentiful a source of error! The interest that we take in every thing that relates to illustri. ous characters, becomes, in the hands of publishers, an engine for raking up their ashes, and dragging into light a thousand blemishes, better concealed. The present volume of letters between bishop Warburton and bishop Hurd, is. perhaps, the most striking proof and illustration of this assertion that was ever exhibited to the world. The former appears throughout in the light of a proud dogmatist, full of illiberal, and even inhuman prejudices: the latter in that of a mean flatterer, humour. ing all the prejudices of his correspondent, at the same time that he gratifies his own pedantic, dry, cynical humour. Warburton, in a letter to Hurd, dated at Prior Park, September 19, says I am strongly tempted to have a stroke at Hume in parting: he has crown. ed the liberty of the press; and yet he has a considerable post un. der the government. I have a great mind to do justice on his arguments *For instance, his Divine Legation of Moses. against But might be done in few words. against miracles, which I think ship, not to shew his dislike: which neglect seems to have kin. dled the first spark of combustion in this madmau's brain. The me-. rits of the two philosophers are soon adjusted. There is an im mense distance between their natural genius; none at all in their excessive vanity; and much again in their good faith. Rousseau's warmth has made him act the madman in his philosophic inquiries, so that he oft saw not the mischief which he did: Hume's coldness. made him not only see, but rejoice in his. But it is neither parts nor logic that has made either of them philosophers, but infidelity only: for which, to be sure, they equally deserve a PENSION," It appears that Mr. Ilume was not so much kept down by his own weight as the bishop might have wished, for we find him haunt. ing his imagination in three or four of his other letters. "Prior-Park, November 15, 1766. "As to Rousseau, I entirely agree with you, that his long letter to his brother philosopher, Hume, shews him to be a rank lunatic. His passion of tears-his suspicion of his friends in the midst of their services and his incapacity of being set right, all consign him to Monro. You give the true cause too of this excess of frenzy, which breaks ou. on all occasions, the honest neglect of our countrymen in their tribute to his importance. For all that Hume says of him on this head, seems to be the truth; and as it is a truth easily discoverable from his writings, his patron could have but one motive in bringing him over (for he was ander the protection of lord Mareshal), and that was cherishing a man whose writings were as mischievous to society as his own. "Walpole's pleasantry upon him had baseness in its very conception. It was written when the poor man had determined to seek an asylum in England; and is therefore justly and generously condemned by D'Alembert, This considered, Hume failed both in honour and friend f The great ceremony, and strong professions of friendship and concern about each other's health, that pervade the whole of these letters, do not bespeak the unreserved, careless, and unsuspecting confidence of ultimate and warm friend. ship. The friendship between these dignitaries, if we were to judge from their letters, would appear to be founded chiefly in a common aversion and hatred of freethinkers and dissenters from the Church of England, What is wonderful, the great Warburton appears little less solicitous to flatter the vanity of Dr. Hurd, than Dr. Hurd does to bow and cringe before the lofty spirit of Warburton. Yet, amidst this farrago of chitchat, prejudice, and adulation, paid, and in no inconsiderable degree repaid, we meet with not a little entertainment in the observations of bishop Warburton on different subjects, and the anec dotes which his station in the world R 3 and |