542 Review.-Gilchrist's Philosophic Etymology. spect, the apostolic exhortation to Christians and Christian teachers, "Think not more highly of yourselves than ye ought to think, but think soberly.”~ The work is divided into five parts: in the first, the nature and origin of Alphabetic Signs is considered; in the second the canon of Etymology is established; in the third, the principles laid down in the two first parts are applied to unfold the component parts of speech; in the fourth, the common system of English grammar is considered; and in the fifth, a standard of Orthography is established. The reader, whose object is knowledge, will read the three first parts with that awakened attention which is natural, when we expect continually some great light to break in upon the mind. The fourth part will afford entertainment to those who read principally to be amused; they will acknowledge that, whether right or wrong, the author is not dull. In the first part, which respects the origin of the alphabet, the following propositions are maintained ;-that "letters of smoother and easier utterance are to be considered as growing out of those of harsher and more difficult utterance, but not vice versa. Thus gutturals (or letters formed in the throat) become dentals (letters formed by putting the teeth together); dentals become labials (letters formed by closing the lips); consonants become vowels; but vowels do not become consonants, nor labials gutturals." That "those forms of letters most speedily and most easily written, or rather graved, (for graving on leaves of trees, on stone, wood, lead, brass, &c., was the first mode of writing and printing,) are to be considered as derivatives, varieties, or corruptions of those forms graved most slowly and difficulty, but not vice versa." That "significancy by signs was prior to any significancy by sounds"-and that "the first attempt at articulate sounds or speech was by expressing with the mouth the form of curiologic signs, that is of circular marks or variations of the circle." For the proof of these propositions we must refer to the treatise itself, in which the curious will find enough to entertain, if not to convince them; for though Mr. Gilchrist deals much in assertion, he does not merely assert. In the second part the following propositions are laid down. That meaning, rather than pronunciation and spelling, is to be considered as the great guide of etymologic investigation;"-that "every word is to be considered significant;" that "every syllable of every word is to be considered significant;" that " every letter of every syllable is to be considered significant;" that "all words are primarily and properly the signs of visible objects;" that "every word is primarily an adjective, that is expressive of some quality, circumstance, or manner of being;" that "almost every word is a compound;" that "the constant tendency of words in passing from mouth to mouth is to contract, not to dilate-to lose, not to assume letters;" that "all the vowels, labials, dentals, in brief, all the letters of the alphabet are resolvable into gutturals, and all the gutturals into one character." "When I say one character," the author adds, "I mean one form of character or kind of sign, namely, the circular form; but there might be originally many sizes, bearing some proportion real or supposed to the magnitude of visible objects, with other contrivances to distinguish one particular visible object from another, as a whole circle to represent the sun, and a half circle to represent the moon; and the sign might be repeated or compounded into two, three, or any number." The result is, which we give in Mr. G.'s own words, to shew that he has honesty as well as rudeness: "The whole of written language, or that system of alphabetic signs, originally addressed to the eye, is resolvable into CR, CL; or LC, RC, &c. signifying round or roundlike. This is the foundation of what shall hereafter be called the New Philology. If this can be overturned, my system of language must fall, and therefore I show its opponents (if it shall be opposed) where to strike; only, if they would not retire from the attack with disand must not rashly infer that because grace, they must proceed with judgment, they cannot resolve all the parts of written language into such a simple origin, the above proposition is false. But that no one may, through misconception, enter upon useless controversy and verbosities, let it be observed that there are many names given to objects, whose form (the form of the objects) is not round or round Review-Gilchrist's Philosophic Etymology. ish, and whose form was not contemplated in the imposition of their names; yet their names are after all resolvable into CR, &c., signifying round or roundish."Pp. 75, 76. We cannot forbear to insert the author's note at this place, for it is a literary curiosity. "I hesitated for some time, whether I should not leave the eighteenth (I ought to apologize for giving so many) proposition wholly unsheltered by explanation and proof, to invite attack, and draw on controversy; for I do not expect it to be generally admitted without resistance: but on further reflection, it appeared unwise to induce war, which comes soon enough through all precautions for peace." -Note, P. 76. As the contents of the third part, which consists of an application of the above principles to the analysis of the component parts of speech, could not be presented in a form very much abridged with fairness, we shall content ourselves with an extract which our readers may consider as a fair sample of the whole dissertation. "The verbal terminations are merely connective. There is strictly but one verbal termination, though it be diversified by various spelling and pronunciation: ath, (the very same as the Hebrew ath,) aith, eth, or ith, &c. was the older form, which became ed, et, es, est, an, en, &c.; en (which is now in Dutch the conjunction answering to our and) is still connected with many words; as seen, known, &c. in what is called the past participle: it is also firmly grafted into many words, as brighten, lighten, drown, &c.; nay, it is both prefixed and postfixed to some words, as enlighten, enliven. The reader will perceive in these instances how liable words are to be used superfluously and insignifi cantly in enliven the connective is put twice; in enliveneth is is put thrice; in enlivenedst it is put four times."-P. 99. "It is always a certain sign of idolatry, or of a Babel-system, when the tongues of those employed about it are divided. There has been wonderful gibbering about the wonders of THE VERB; and among the rest Dr. Crombie is seriously alarmed lest this important part of speech be degraded from its true dignity into a mere participle. "It would be superfluous to explain eth to the intelligent reader; he must perceive that like en, ed, es, it is merely a connective, whether affixed to what is called a verb, an adjective, a noun, or any word whatever; and it would be easy to convince him that this is the primary use of 543 all verbal terminations in all the dialects. It has been the fashion of late, indeed, with some Greek and Latin grammarians, to consider them as primarily pronouns : in this they are nearer the truth than themselves are aware of, (for eth however diversified, is originally the same as what are called pronouns,) yet it is not as they mean it. Horne Tooke seems to have considered th, do and to, as the same word, but what he considered do he did not communicate. In Hebrew, ath, the grammarians say truly, "seldom admits of translation into English after an active verb, (nor does the verbal termination eth in English, admit of translation into any other language): when prefixed to a person it commonly signifies with.' Wilson's Hebrew Grammar.-This is always its signification when it has any signification, whether it be called a preposition, as ad, at; or a conjunction, as and, et; a termination as in amat, amat-us, amans, amant-is, &c. The reader must be now convinced that verbal, participial and simple adjective terminations, (those which do not denote negation, diminution or augmentation,) are all alike merely connective, and in fact the same copula, somewhat varied in its form by the accidents of pronunciation and spelling."-Pp. 100–102. Whether our author has or has not solved the great problem of language, whether he has untied the knot or merely cut it, we shall leave to the sagacity of his readers to determine. He has, as he is fully persuaded, followed up the most remote parts of speech, through every winding, and sometimes up passages sufficiently rugged and abrupt, to one common channel; he has also pursued that to its fountain, the supposed source of all written language, and he declares it to be neither more nor less than the cypher which is raised from insignifi cance into significancy almost infinite, or the circle, under all its variations into greater or less, single or double, more or less regular, &c. We do not certainly intend prediction; but as the author in a moment of extraordinary diffidence has imagined what may happen, we shall annex the passage, both as it shews that he is prepared for the worst, and as it presents him to the reader in a gentle and even tender and elegiac mood." He," (meaning the author of Etymologicon Magnum, to whom in very gratitude our author owed an elegy)— "He was almost within sight of the proper starting post of etymological in 544 Review.-Estlin's Discourse in Defence of Unitarianism. vestigation, yet deviated far from the right way And found no end in wandering mazes lost.' This notice which I have been led unintentionally to take of the labours of Mr. Whiter, diffuses a tender melancholy over my mind; for in turning from them I have often said to myself with an involuntary sigh, what a poor fallible thing is the human understanding! Perhaps after all this anxious thinking and toilsome inquiry I shall only make a book to lie on the same shelf, or to be thrown to the same heap, with Etymologicon Magnum."-P. 78. ART. III.-A Unitarian Christian's Statement and Defence of his Principles with reference particularly to the Charges of the Rt. Rev. the Ld. Bp. of St. David's. A Discourse, delivered at Langyndeirn, near Calmarthen, on Thursday the 6th of July, 1815, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Unitarian Christians in South Wales, and published at their request, with Notes. By John Prior Estlin, LL. D. 8vo. pp. 88. Hunter. 1815. BISHO ISHOP BURGESS is entitled to the thanks of the Unitarians for keeping alive the Trinitarian controversy. He means not, certainly, to confer any favour upon them, but he cannot write against them without making their principles known, which is all they ask. Even his gross misrepresentations and wretched personalities have in one view a good effect, for they lead honest, candid and intelligent minds to suspect very properly that the prelate is conscious of the weakness of his cause, and is afraid to let it rest upon its own merits. The good Bishop may see the impotence of episcopal fulminations by looking around his diocese. There Unitarian churches have been recently formed and they hold their associations under his lordship's eye. This sermon preached before one of these may shew Dr. Burgess that elevated as he is in his own church, he is esteemed by his Unitarian neighbours like any other writer, and that the mitre cannot give weight to idle declamation or hide the meanness and malignity of slander. Not confining himself to the ordinary plan of a sermon, Dr. Estlin takes occasion from Acts xxiv. 14, to state, defend and enforce the prin ciples of Unitarians, and to vindicate himself and his brethren from the charges of their opponents, and particularly Bishop Burgess. The discourse is marked by so much sound sense, so much becoming solemnity, and such correct Scriptural knowledge, and contains so many passages of great beauty, that we cannot but wish it were in the hands of all those readers that have been taught by the Bishop of St. David's and a few likeminded writers, that Unitarians are not entitled to the privileges of Christians, the courtesy of scholars or the rights of men. "In the name of justice, of humanity and of Christianity, what is that great superiority of intellectual and moral worth, which he who has received the Trinitarian system, or who professes to have received it, enjoys over the person whose understanding can only admit the Unitarian system; that wealth and honours, and all the advantages of this life, should be open to the one, and that the other should not only be subject to the most degrading privations, but be every where spoken against;" and to crown all, that one should be admitted into the regions of everlasting happiness, and the other be exposed to the curse of God for ever? "O Lord! how long !"-P. 41. Dr. Estlin speaks thus "comfortably" to the Unitarians on the subject of fashion, the whole current of which he admits is now against them: "This last circumstance we know is of a temporary nature; and although we consider it as the circumstance which operates most powerfully against us, yet we feel a full confidence from the general circulation of the Bible and the increasing light and liberality which that occasions, that its operation will soon cease. Nothing is more changeable than fashion. If ever the ideas of superiority of intellect should be associated with the religious tenets of a Newton and a Locke of coarseness, inconsistency and even nonsense with some modern systems which have attracted the notice of the gaping crowd-of sublimity propriety of feeling with unadulterated of conception, correctness of taste and Christianity; if ever this period should arrive--surely it cannot be very remote! the thousands who now only think with us, will speak and act with us; and those whose minds are composed of "matter too soft a lasting mark to bear," will thea exhibit the visible impression of Unitarianism. In the mean time, all that we want Review-Estlin's Discourse in Defence of Unitarianism. is, that the soil of the human mind should not be suffered to lie fallow or to produce only tares. That the seeds of truth may be sown, is all we ask. The harvest we leave to Heaven."-P. 5. The Doctor considers the Unity of God and the humanity of Christ as doctrines totally distinct, and (p. 68,) retracts an opinion which he formerly advanced" that the proper humanity of Christ should be a necessary article of belief in a Christian society." On this controverted point, he says, "In a conversation which I once had with Dr. Priestley on the very point, I took the liberty of telling him that his definition of Unitarianism in excluding those who hold the pre-existence of Christ appeared to my mind an illogical definition, and that Dr. Price, with whom I then coincided in opinion, was as much a Unitarian as himself. At that time I did not foresee that prejudice would proceed so far as to affix an odium to the very word. I thought that the definition itself was incorrect; that justice was not done by it to those who hold the pre-existence of Christ, but do not worship him, and that their exclusion was dividing and weakening a party, the union and strength of which could not be too sedulously, promoted. I once for all enter my protest against the exclusive use of the word: and what I always mean by it is expressed in the following definition. "A UNITARIAN IS A PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN AND WORSHIPS ONE GOD ONLY. "I add another definition, for the denial of which, or the substitution of any other for it, I demand the authority of Scripture. "A CHRISTIAN IS A PERSON WHO BELIEVES THE DIVINE MISSION OF JESUS CHRIST. "In the sense of these definitions, I claim for myself, and I doubt not that each of you will claim for himself, the appellation of a Unitarian Christian."Pp. 25, 26. The following observations on the miraculous conception appear to worthy of attention : us "The authenticity of the two first chapters of St. Matthew and St. Luke, on which so much has been written, and on one side with so much acrimony, has nothing to do with the subject of Unitarianism. And even the pre-existence of Christ, a doctrine which many Unitarians hold, is no more connected with the miraculous conception than it is with the miraculous appearances which were seen, or the miraculous voice which was heard at the baptism of our Lord. Many Unita 545 rians have believed the miraculous conception, and others from some interesting texts in the narrative, and an apprehended consistency in the circumstance, that the second Adam should have been produced without an earthly father as the first was, have wished it to be true. Griesbach, however, it is thought by some, has not proved these chapters to be authentic: nor do Unitarians profess to follow him implicitly, although they have a high opinion of his learning, his assiduity and his impartiality. See Dr. Priestley's History of Early Opinions, Vol. IV; and Grundy's Lectures on this subject."-Pp. 33, 34. The reader will peruse with some interest, Dr. Estlin's explanation of his view of the Sabbath: "Unitarians can agree to differ. I am not a materialist, and I disagree in opinion with Mr. Belsham and my nephew, Mr. Grundy, on the subject of the Sabbath. The statement of my particular view of the case will probably not be deemed a digression, as I have been informed that what Mr. Belsham has said on this subject in his Letters to Mr. Wilberforce, has injured the cause of Unitarianism in Wales. I beg leave then, just to state, that it appears to me, that the institution of a Sabbath has made a part of every dispensation of Revealed Religion; that there was a Patriarchal and a Jewish Sabbath; and that there is a Christian Sabbath called the Lord's Day; that Christ himself instituted a rite in commemoration of his death, and that his Apostles after his ascension, when they were authorised legislators in his kingdom, appointed a day to be set apart to commemorate his resurrection as well as to answer the general purposes of a Sabbath; and that they instituted it by their conduct, which speaks a language stronger than words, at a time when any other mode of institution would have sub jected them to endless disputes with the Jews."-Notes, pp. 62, 63. Referring to Bishop Burgess's arguments, Dr. Estlin says, in a beautiful passage with which this article must conclude "If such are the weapons of orthodoxy, Unitarianism may stand unarmed before her without fear of injury. I express myself with confidence, because I know, that if in the intellectual world it is still twilight, it is the twilight of morning. The fogs which linger in the West will be scatThe tered by the rays of the rising Sun. Eastern horizon is clear, and bright will be the day."-Notes, p. 48. 546 Review.-Wilson's Dissenting Churches. "John Hodge, D. D. a learned and respectable minister of the Presbyterian denomination, of whose life it is not in our power to lay before the reader many particulars. He received his academical education at Taunton, under the learned Mr. Henry Grove, for whom he ever afterwards retained an affectionate remembrance. The place where he spent the first years of his ministry was, we believe, at Deal, in the county of Kent. From thence he removed to Glocester, where he continued to labour with great reputation, for a considerable period. Dr. Grosvenor being disabled for public service, which made it expedient for him to resign the pastoral office in 1749, Dr. Hodge accepted an invitation to succeed him at Crosby-Square. At the time of his settlement in that place, the congregation was in a very low state. And notwithstanding his pulpit composures were very sensible and devotional, and his manner of delivery just, though not striking, he was not so happy as to raise the church; but as the old members died, or families removed, it continued sinking. At length, the infirmities of advanced life, obliged him to resign the pastoral relation, about the year 1761 or 1762. After this, he lived for some time in retirement, preaching only occasionally, till he was removed by death, August 18, 1767. As an acknowledgment of the benefits he received during the course of his academical studies, be bequeathed to the academy of Taunton, his valuable library of books. Upon the dissolution of that seminary, they were removed to Exeter. "Dr. Hodge was a learned and respectable man, of moderate sentiments, and an excellent preacher. He favoured the republic of letters with a valuable set of discourses, in one volume, octavo, upon the Evidences of Christianity. They are written in a comprehensive, judicious, and nervous manner, and have been highly spoken of by good judges. He also published several single sermons : as one upon New-year's day, at St. Thomas's, Southwark-another at the morning lectare, Little St. Helen's, August 1, 1751 ---and a third occasioned by the death of the Rev. John Mason, author of the treatise on Self-knowledge, preached at Dr. Cheshunt, Herts, Feb. 20, 1763. Hodge also drew up an account of Mr. May's Life, prefixed to his sermons. 1755." -Pp. 354, 355. In the memoirs of Mr. Benjamin Robinson, minister of the Presbyterian congregation, Little St. Helen's, which no longer exists, we have an account of a controversy once esteemed of importance by the Nonconformists: "In 1709, he published, “A Review of the case of Liturgies, and their imposition; in answer to Mr. Bennet's Brief History of pre-composed set Forms of Prayer, and his Discourse of joint Prayer." To this Mr. Bennet wrote a reply, which was answered by Mr. Robinson, and produced a second letter from Mr. Bennet. This was a controversy of some importance, and called forth no inconsiderable talent. Some sentiments advanced by Mr. Bennet, were considered not only contrary to the general sense of Dissenters, but as a shock upon the reason of mankind. It is no wonder, therefore, that his book met with animadversion. Two pamphlets by way of answer to it, were written by Mr. John Horsley, ancestor to the late bishop of that name. It was also severely repre hended by some of his own brethren, particularly by Dr. Wainewright, Mr. Ollyffe, and Dr. John Edwards, in his "Christian Preacher."-Pp. $79, 380. Few names in the Dissenting Fast's are more respectable than that of Mr. Samuel Jones. We are obliged to Mr. Wilson for a sketch of his life in a ncte affixed to the memoir of one of his pupils, Mr. Edward Godwin, the grandfather of Mr. William Godwin, the celebrated author, now living. "Mr. Samuel Jones, who was of Welsh extraction, received his education in Holland, under the learned Perizonius. He kept his academy first at Glocester, from whence, in 1712, he removed to Tewkesbury, where, we believe, he was also paseducation, a very interesting account may tor of a congregation. Of his method of be seen, in a letter written in 1711, by Mr. (afterwards Archbishop) Secker, then one of Mr. Jones's pupils, to the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts.* Mr. Secker speaks highly of the advantages he enjoyed at ordinary place of education." Mr. Jones this seminary, which he calls “an extraobliged his pupils to rise at five o'clock every morning, and always to speak Latin, except when they mixed with the family. "We pass our time very agreeably (says * "See Gibbons's Memoirs of Watts, P. 346." |