To all thefe may be added the apparent inconfiftency in the of De Fonte's letter, where he fays, there was no paffage to the South Sea by what they called the North-Weft; for it is evident that he was confcious of fuch a paffage; though -69) for it is evident that he very probably he deceived Capt. Shapley and major Gibbons, by fome mifinformation that he had time enough to concert, before the captain returned to his fhip. And as it is to be 10magined that he failed down from lake Fonte in a fhallop that 15 he had brought along with him to that lake, and met Capt. -M Shapley in that fhallop, he might the more eafily carry on the 8 deception, as it might be fuppofed that fuch a veffel was not

calculated to undergo the feverity of fuch a voyage, but built T upon fome lake of which the Spaniards had the fovereignty, arly as it was fo much for their intereft that this difcovery fhould be -mos kept a fecret: fo that, upon the whole, although there is not bobrany one circumftance in the letter which betrays ficha fimple

...inattention, yet it is for that very reafon we look

upon it as the clearest criterion to judge of its authenticity. For it never can be imagined that a perfon fo ingenious as to frame this confiftent narrative, would have interrupted its uniformity, at least, by, fuch a palpable abfurdity. It would have been highly unnatural for an impoftor to have had any idea of that kind; but drit was the moft proper evafion for De Fonte that his fituation www.would permit.

-5dw - We are as much fatisfied as the author is, of the authenticity of the letter, and congratulate him upon the fuccefs with which This investigations have been attended. For although his language is in many places very incorrect, yet the attention and application which he manifefts throughout the whole comLovmentary to reconcile the letter to itself, and to illuminate fuch a veiled part of geography, makes us excufe all faults of that kind; efpecially as we difcover fuch a combination of two qualifications which very feldom are united, great metaphyfito cal precifion with a critical knowledge in maritime affairs.

It could have been wifhed he had given us a chart from Callao, where De Fonte failed from, that we might have compared his obfervations with the journal, as he went along.

svi The manner in which he propofes to prófecute this difcolew very will be found in the 127th page. However, the most eliasgible method (was it to be looked upon in a public light) would gain be for a hip to be well fitted out at Canton, after her voyage ad from Europe, and from thence to proceed to the latitude of styAmerica, where the entrance of the firaits is fuppofed "to" com570w mence, as it would be fo much easier finding it on that fide of America than it would be on the other, by which we might acquire a perfect knowledge of its reality at once." fly The remaining part of this work is a collection of eve every reemarkable tradition or anecdote which materially relates to this its fubject, wherein many things are found both entertaining and fonew, feveral of which the author explains in a masterly manrodner, and every where appears an able geographer and fea11900 man, fquons emit nad on

The Origin and Structure of the Greek Tongue, in a Series of 19 Letters addressed to anyoung Nobleman. By Gregory Sharpe, on't no LSL. D. Mafter of the Temple, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Ma

ing 26 jefly, and Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Sagictjes 8vo. And wopr.243. 243.04 DodfleyJə yanavikant og bag of betaluo:85 HERE are only three ways of treating grammar. The firft is by fhewing the caufes of every inflexion, by the 5 analyfis of all the feveral parts of which a language is comyadong sa pounded;

2.

10

pounded; the second is by paradigmata or examples; and the third, by fhewing under each letter of the alphabet all the changes which are thereby introduced. These three methods are feparately and diftin&tly purfued in this performance. end In the firft place, the author proceeds upon the analytical fcheme, and endeavours to account for all the inflexions of nouns andqverbs. In the former, he says, the variations of cafe and number are made by adding the feveral parts of the article is, i, o, as terminations to the original theme or root; the latter, he tells us, are conftructed and varied by the addition, and mixture of the affifting verb ei. LIV

ད

1

The diftinction of letters into fervile and radical, he apprehends to be of great ufe in the knowledge of grammar. Some few confonants remain, he fays, almoft invariable, or change only into letters of the fame organ; whilft others are employed in the varieties which defcribe every circumftance of things and actions fuch as gender, cafe, and number, with degrees of comparison in nouns; and mode, time, voice, number, and perfon in verbs. P is only employed in forming the comparative degree of adjectives. Some, with the liquids, retain their v place in every alteration made by the laws of grammar; thefe are properly called radical, B, F, A, Z, A. The other letters are l called fervile, as fubfervient to the purpofes of grammatical T inflexion.

• The use and service of these letters are in proportion to the times of their occurrence. The most frequent among the vowels are E, O. I; among the confonants N, E, T, M; and thefe to are, therefore, the principal or leading letters in promoting grammatical varieties.'

Upon these principles our author has attempted to reduce the Greek grammar to a regular system, and to explain the grounds of every inflexion in the language. In the old way the memory was embarraffed by a multitude of apparently arbitrary terminations; but upon this plan nothing is fuppofed to depend merely on ufe and cuftom. Reasons à priori are affigned for every grammatical variety. Here, perhaps, an ingenious imagination may fometimes amuse itself with fanciful difcove-ns ries and empty fpeculations; but the investigation is laudable; and our learned author has undoubtedly pursued a proper courfer) of enquiry by tracing the Greek language from the Eaft, from whence it certainly derived its exiftence. brusinquge, són uns

The fecond part of this work contains paradigmata of nouns and verbs, exhibiting the whole as in one view, and füpplying clear and perfect examples to the rules, and reafons, and caufes of the Greek tongue.

Under

K

Under the third divifion the author confiders the changes. made by each letter of the alphabet; the varieties occafioned by the diverfity of dialects, and the fubftituting of one letter` for another of the fame organ or classy babe if b

The reader who has feen the Doctor's differtation upon the origin and structure of the Latin tongue, may form an idea of the nature of this performance, as the fame plan is pursued in both 10

At the conclufion he has fubjoined the following enquiry into the rife and progress of the letters of the Greek alphabetalon The art of writing was certainly very antient, as is evident from the facred Scriptures; and, indeed, commerce could not have fubfifted long without it. Some marks must have been used in the moft early times to diftinguish the returns of the feafons, to affign and fecure limits and boundaries, and to aflift the memory on various occafions.

The Egyptians, and many other nations, made ufe of the pictures or reprefentations of objects, which pictures have been called Hieroglyphics. To fuch marks the Chinese owe the vaft number of characters used by them in their writings. But the letters of the Alphabet, however varied or numerous, had their origin in the Eaft, and are the offspring of one parent. The names, the shape, the order, and the arithmetical power of these letters prove them to be all derived from one and the fame fource.

The Hebrew Alphabet is not very unlike the Phoenician, or what has been called the Samaritan : and I think that, upon a very flight infpection, it will appear most probable that the latter was derived from the former. The Hebrew is of a beautiful and regular construction, and may well be confidered as a facred character not in common use; whereas the old Phonician and the modern rabbinical characters are made with greater expedition, and feem to be derived from the fame characters written in hafte, and adapted to ordinary purposes.

Herodotus afferts that, upon inquiry, he found the rites of Bacchus were introduced into Greece by Cadmus the Tyrian, and the Phoenicians who came with him, and fettled in Boeotia : all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt. Cadmus was the fon of Agenor an Egyptian. The Coptic letters are nearly the fame with the Greek, but as the names are not Ægyptian, and no infeription has yet been discovered confifting of any of thefe alphabetic characters, till after the Greeks were in poffeffion of Egypt under the Ptolomies, it is nothing more than fancy or conjecture to imagine that the Ægyptians were the authors of them,

We

We are informed by Diodorus the Sicilian, that it was the opinion of fome perfons that letters were invented by the Syrians, from whom hom the Phoenicians first learnt t first learnt their ufe,

then communicated them to the Greeks.

The Phoenicians

as the fame perfons fay, only changed the fhape or form of the letters, but were not the first who difcovered them.

The inhabitants of Jerufalem are called Syrians of Paleftine by Herodotus, and he defcribes their city by the fame name it had of old, and which it ftill continues to have in the Eaft.

The fame hiftorian, declaring his own fentiments, fays, that the Phoenicians under Cadmus, with whom were the Gephurei, and many others, brought learning into Greece, and that the Greeks had not earlier the ufe of letters.

C

This is contradicted by Diodorus, Paufanias, Zenobius, and others. Diodorus informs us that Linus compofed a book, upon the acts of the first Dionyfius, in Pelafgic characters, and that the fame were ufed by Orpheus and by Pronapides the preceptor of Homer. Zenobius fays, that Cadmus flew Linus for teaching characters differing from his. And Paufanias, in his Attics, affures us, that he himself faw an infcription upon the tomb of Coroebus, who lived at the time when Crotopus, who was contemporary with Deucalion, was king of the Argives. Letters, therefore, were in ufe among the Greeks long before the arrival of Cadmus,

The first letters used in Greece and Italy were called Pelafgic. The Pelafgi, whether of Egyptian, or Syrian and Phenician race, came into Greece, and were difperfed over all the country before the reign of Deucalion. Strabo fays, all acknowledge the Pelafgi to be an antient tribe, fettled over all Greece, and principally in Eolia and Theffaly. Hence Herodotus afferts that the Arcadians, Athenians, and others, were called Pelafgi. And in another place, he informs us that the people of Athens, who were Pelafgi, changed their fpeech with their letters; plainly intimating, that before that time they spoke the language, and used the characters, of the Pelafgi. Almoft the fame thing is faid of the Romans by Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, who tells us that they fpoke a mixt dialect, not perfectly Barbarian, nor perfectly Greek, but made ufe of both, and for the moft part the Æolian.

The Pelafgi were reduced by Deucalion, Hellen, and Cadmus. They were not fuffered by the 1 laft conqueror to retain their antient name; and it is, therefore, not very furprizing that letters were no longer permitted to be called Pelafgic. In Peloponnefus, the Pelafgi were now called Dorians, and in Arcadia