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    spect , theapostoJfe ^ xhorfcatiort Christians and Christiau teachers , €€ Think not more highly otyourselves than ye ought to think , but trunk soberfy / * The work is divided into foe parts : in the first , the nature and ori g in 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 fourtn , 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

    he . considered as growing out of those of harsher and more difficult utterance , hut 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 1

    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 peech 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 conviuce them ; for though Mr . Gilchrist deals much in assertion , he does not merely assert .

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    In the second part the follo ^ propositions ; are laid down . Th * meaning , rather than pronunciation and spelling , is to be considered as the great guide of etymologic inv est ^ tion ; . "—that " every word is to be considered significant" that « Pn

    ; PV , syllable of every word is to be considered significant ; " that " ever y letter of every syllable is to be considered significant ; " that " all words are , ' primarily and properly the signs of visible

    objects ; " that < c every word is primarily an adjective , Jthat is expressive of some quality , circumstance , or manner of being ; " that " almost every word is a compound ; " that te 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 mignt 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 :

    cc 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 , a j therefore I show its opponents ( if it shall be opposed ) where to strike ; only , if they would not retire from the attack with disgrace , they must proceed with judg ment , and must not rashly infer that because they cannot resolve all the parts of written language into such a simple origin * tic above proposition is false . But that n one may , through misconcep tion , en er upon useless controversy and verbosity * let it be observed that there are many names given to objects , whose form ( ibrm of the objects ) is not round or rouflfl-

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    54 * Revie w *—Gilchrufs Philosophic jEtymofo gg *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 542, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/42/