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relates a certain discourse, that paffed between Midas, the Phrygian, and Silenus; when these two had dif"coursed of many things, Silenus, above all, tells Midas, "that Europe, Afia and Lybia ought to be confidered as islands, which the ocean wholly furrounded; and that "the part of the world, which lay beyond this, ought only to be esteemed the continent; as it was of an im"menfe extent, and nourished very different, and vaftly larger kinds of animals, than this fide of the world." Then our author says, "from what has been offered, we may conclude, that Africa and America were once joined, or, at least, separated from each other, but by a very narrow gulph; and that, fome time after the flood, "the earth was divided, or parted afunder, probably by means of an earthquake, and then this middle land "funk beneath the ocean."

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I HAVE fet down this very fingular tradition here to entertain the reader, who may never have had any notice of it, nor of this learned author, who has taken it up, to prove a real geographical divifion, or feparation, of the earth: nor can I venture to fay, he had not a probable foundation, at least, to go upon; because, as I have before suggested, that none but Nimrod's people were concerned in the affair of Babel, the confufion, or difperfion, which was a judicial event upon the offenders only, could not well be accounted a divifion of the earth; especially too, as the people of Japhet and Shem were now in poffeffion of their respective fettlements, in places remote enough from this scene of action among the Nimrodians in Shinar. Befides, if a political divifion of the earth was to be in the

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case, there could be no plan whatever formed to make fuch a one, unless the number of fharers was determined; and this would be hard to do, when Peleg was born; because the increase of mankind was fo great, at that time, that this was impoffible: and all that can be faid about an appropriation of countries, is only what Mofes, and the Irish Records, have delivered, in general, that Shem's iffue migrated eastward, Ham's fouthward, and Japhet's northward and weftward. And, as to any fubdivifions of lands, or territories, they certainly were made among men, all along, according to their refpective conveniencies, rivalfhips, or power, and that with much the fame ftrife and warfare that ftates are involved in, in our own times, about fuch matters.

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CHA P. IX.

The Welsh and Irish languages compared; the cause of the degeneracy of changes made in them; of their clofe affinity; as alfo of others of Europe with them; a fummary account of the present state of the several languages of Europe; and a list of about one thousand words in the Welsh and Irish, having the fame fignification, tending to prove they were originally the fame.

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AM, in this chapter, to fhew, that the Gomerian and Magogian, or Welsh and Irish languages, ## * were originally the fame, without any the least variation, until the introduction of the exotic words, from

the incurfions of Phoenicians and Egyptians into the ifles of Elisha; which made fome alteration in the Gomerian, whilst the Magogian tongue remained in its own pure ftate, through all the northern migrations, till they arrived in Ireland and Scotland: which, befides the proofs in the foregoing part of this work, I shall enforce, by a comparative view of a great number of words from each, which will ferve to demonftrate, that the agreement between them could not be the effect of chance, but of their having been the family language, at leaft, of the houfe of Japhet. In this purfuit, I fhall all along make occafional remarks, by which many of the causes of the mutilation and degeneracy of languages, will manifeftly

appear.

Ir is not my intention, in this work, to make any enquiry into the affinity that might be fufpected between the Magogian and Hebrew tongues; but I am inclined to think, that the latter was the language that was used chiefly in Shem's family, and their iffue, if not also in thofe from Ham, until that confufion happened to his grandfon's, Nimrod's, people; and, indeed, that both were dialects of an antediluvian principal language. But a research of this kind might easily be purfued, by profeffors of the Eastern tongues, through the feveral dialects of the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages, upon fuch a plan as I have made my rule, in purfuit of those of Europe, which is the principal business of what I am

about.

If we enter into a little reflection upon our own language, we shall find, that the fame word is pronounced

differently

differently in different places, and, accordingly, fuch perfons as are not verfed in claffical learning, will be apt to write as they pronounce; and fo lofe the original root of the word. This is one cause of the degeneracy of a language, and often of the alienation of the true fenfe of the expreffion.

ANOTHER Cause of the introduction of new words inte a language is, that, in the original migration of a people, they meet a great number of things, which were unknown in the places from whence they departed; for the productions of nature, and other incidental matters, are not the fame in all places; and hence an invention of new words muft enfue.

AGAIN, in a long tract of time, when the fubdivifions of the fame people have been fettled in remote places, and their language, which, before their feparation, was the fame, has undergone, in each divifion, in habitations very remote from one another, feveral fuch changes as I have mentioned; they have appeared very ftrange and different to their former relations, in their future incurfions and depredations, which history furnishes innumerable examples of.

THERE are many more incidents, than what I have mentioned above, to prove this, by observing which, we shall fee further into the caufes of the mutilation of languages; and thefe changes confift in a deviation of the sense, or a different fyllabication, and, confequently, pronunciation, of the fame word; ftill retaining the fame fignifica-. tion; and, at the fame time, having their original identity fo eafily difcernible, as to admit of no manner of doubt.

Such

Such deviations are very common in the Cornish and Armoric dialects of the Gomerian, and are many also between this and the Magogian; which will appear in the courfe of the lift of words at the end of this chapter, in thefe two fifter tongues, as well as in others that may be derived from them.

LET us, however, by way of exemplification, first attend to the present state of fome languages of Europe, which have a confiderable share of the Latin in them; and these are the French, Italian and Spanish. In every one of these, we shall find a very remarkable mutilation of the fame word, and that alteration different in each; a few examples will not be improper here, and they are made by the addition of initial letters, or the tranfpofition of either letters, or of intire fyllables: :.

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