66

Valle, fol. "What language the Pelafgians ufed, I can"not certainly affirm; but, if I may form a conjecture, by that which is spoken at present among thofe Pelaf"gians, who, being now fettled at Crotona, beyond the "Tyrrheneans, were formerly neighbours to those called, at "this day, Dorians, and dwelt in Theffaly when the Pelafgians founded Placia and Cylace, on the Hellefpont, ❝ and lived in fociety with the Athenians: if, I say, add"ing to these fuch other Pelafgian cities as have altered "their name, I may be permitted to give my conjecture, “the Pelasgians spoke a barbarous language; and if the "whole Pelafgian body did so, the people of Attica, who are defcended from them, must have unlearned their "own mother-tongue, after they took the name of Gre“ cians; for the language of the Crotonians, and of the "Placians, is the fame; but different from that of all "their neighbours. By which it appears, they have taken "care to preserve the language they brought with them "into thofe places. But the Hellenians, as I think, have, "from the time they were a people, used the same lan

guage they now speak; and though, when feparated "from the Pelafgians, they were at firft of no confider"able force; yet, from a small beginning, they advanced

to a mighty power by the conjunction of many na"tions, as well Barbarians as others." Valla has a note upon this paffage, refpecting the interpretation from the Greek of Herodotus; which being of fome confequence to my subject, I think neceffary here, particularly too, as it agrees with Mr. Littlebury's sense of the Greek text : "Totum hunc locum fic interpretor, qui in Græco etiam

"exemplari prorfus eft perturbatus: fed ex conjectura licet " dicere, ejus linguæ fuiffe cujus funt hodie ii ex Pelafgis, qui fupra Tyrrhenos Crotona civitatem incolunt, et olim "finitimi erant iis quos nunc Dores vocant: tum videlicet

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quum eam quam nunc appellant Theffalicam regionem "incolebant: et ii quoque Pelafgi, qui Placiam et Scyla-... cen condiderunt, et Athenienfium contubernales fuerunt. “Ex his, inquam, conjectura facta, dicere licet, Pelafgos "olim barbare fuiffe locultos. Nam et Crotoniatæ et "Placieni lingua quidem diffident a fuis vicinis, inter "fe vero conveniunt ?" Now, from this quotation, it is evident the Pelafgians are the Barbari; their language, the barbarous language he meant; that they were called by other names, according to their migrations and different governments; as Crotoni, and many others (fee a former account) which the Greeks gave them; and that the Hellenians had, from the time they were a people, spoke the fame language they were speak, ing in Herodotus's time. This fhews how ignorant this old historian was of the people of Greece before the Heleni; or, in other words, of the original inhabitants of the isles of Elisha, before the Hellenian language was formed; but confeffes, that when they separated from the Pelafgians they were inconfiderable; hence nothing is more evident, than that both they and their language came from the Pelafgians.

I MUST further add a quotation from Plato, as given by Mr. Bailey, which this ingenious author thinks a very extraordinary conceffion in that GrePlato, fays our author, has fallen into a very

cian: “

5

"extra

6.6

extraordinary conceffion, with refpect to the Greek "language: that many Greek words are fo extremely confused by writing, particularly in poetry, as to "render their real meaning quite uncertain; and as to πρῶτα καὶ ἀρχηγὰ ὀνόματα, which fand as the bafis “and ground-work of other names, fince framed by men, they and their proper fignification must be sought for among their elder neighbours, tès Bagbźges, not Bar"bari, in our fenfe, of cruel, ignorant men; but fo"reigners of the East; who, faith he, received their language from GOD:" "which, furely, fays Mr. Bailey, 66. can be spoken of no people with so much propriety, as “of the Hebrews." I must beg leave to differ, in this regard, from that learned man; having just shewed, that the Barbari were the Pelafgians, out of Herodotus: therefore the Hebrews could have nothing to do with this matter; they were very remote, in their migrations, from Greece; nor has any hiftorian made mention of Hebrews coming there in those times. The Greek is full of the Pelafgian language, not quite fo much of the Hebrew. Nor can it, in any wife, allude to Mofes's having received his inftructions and laws from heaven; because he was not in being, in at least three centuries after the Greeks had made the changes in the Pelafgic language, we have spoken of already. But if it be thought, that any special grace or bleffing should, by God's permiffion, have been denounced by Noah to the ftem from which the Hebrews: fprung: furely Japhet had his bleffing too, by the fame permiffion; and if one branch may be faid to have its language from GOD, the other has alfo the fame claim. But

if

if I may be permitted to paraphrafe this fentence of Plato, it means no more, than that the Greeks had originally their language from the Pelafgians, among whom the proper etymologies were to be fought for; and that, if we would go higher, we must make the laft appeal to the CREATOR: juft as other Greeks did, when they could go no higher than the first inhabitants of certain places, they faid they sprung out of the earth. But Plato's appeal was the most righteous, fince all things came from God's command, And it is no great wonder, if fome words of the Hebrew are found in the Greek tongue, because it was from the mixture I have often mentioned, of Phenician, Egyptian, &c. with the Pelafgian, it was formed; for the Phonician, no doubt, had its rife from the Hebrew.

LET us further caft a careful eye upon the Phenician alphabets of the learned Mr. Chifhul, as drawn out by Dr. Morton, at the bottom of his table, and there we shall see these seventeen letters to be the true primary, or original characters: for Dr. Morton has given them in both ways from that author; that is, in one line, from right to left; and in the other, reverfed in each of which, there are several letters barred, and called by Dr. Morton, from the author, literæ fecundaria, which, when excluded from the originals, there remain only feventeen; and Chibul fays, cæteræ autem feptemdecim primaria. This is a very striking circumstance, and a most convincing proof, that wherever a language can be found, whose letters are but seventeen, it must be an unmixed primary language; and that in every other, which requires an increase of letters, it is plain they are mixed and altered, and confequently stand

in need of additional powers, ferving to their expression : and that these seventeen are the originals.

THIS was the cafe in Greece: for, when the Pelafgian language began to be altered, in the manner I have mentioned several times before, then feventeen letters, that fimple and primary group of characters, became infufficient to express the innovated founds; and, therefore, the ☺, E, and X, were added by Palamedes; and the Z, H, Y and , by Simonides Melitus, or fomebody else. Now, if these secondary letters be omitted in the Greek alphabet, the remaining seventeen are the letters of the Magogian, now the Scotifh, or Irish, language. I muft, however, obferve, that the F is one of these seventeen primary or original letters; and that therefore Palamedes had no need to have added the ; because it can produce no other found than the F does, which they had already. Now, according to Mr. Bailey, Cadmus's fixteen letters were, A, B, г', A, E, H, I, K, A, M, N, O, II, P, Σ, T; but, according to Pliny, the letters he brought were, A, B, C, D, E, : G, I, L, M, N, O,P,R,S,T,V; to which, if the F is added, they are the identical letters with those of our Pelafgian, and, Mr. Chisbul's primary characters. From whence, I think, it would seem that Palamedes came after Cadmus, and not finding the F, added, among others mentioned, the, if it be true that he made fuch addition. Indeed, it is as likely that Cadmus brought the feventeen, and that the F may have been omitted by transcribers, or the number mistaken by the historians; but, however that be, it is certain the original or primary letters were feventeen only, and the F, which was, in after-times, called a di