Bound by
DEVEREUX
THE
ATLANTIS
Art. I. — The TJieory of the Picturesque.
By W. H. Scott, M.A.
pS'oTE. — This sketch of an interestnig theory was put into our hands
by the accompUshed author, on his leaving England last summer
for the visit of a few months to the Continent, from which he never
returned. It is here published, not only on the ground of its
intrinsic merit, in spite of its not having received his last correc-
tions, but also as a memorial of one very dear to his friends,
who has been prematurely taken away. — Ed.]
THE question is worth asking, and, to the best of our know-
ledge, has never has been so sufficiently answered as to
make any apology necessary for here pursuing and reconsider-
ing it, — What is the correct theory, the true philosophical account,
and scientific analysis of that special variety or modification of
the Beautiful, which is brought home to the perception of
every one under the name of the " Picturesque " ? What is the
secret of the fascination residing in that singular combination of
apparently heterogeneous materials, of nature with art, of variety
with unity, of irregularity with proportion, of imperfection with
completeness, of disturbance with repose, which perhaps every
one will acknowledge to be comprehended in the idea which
the term conveys, and which, notwithstanding, when we come
to examine it, seems so difficult to interpret? The inquiry is
interesting in itself as a problem, and has the further recommen-
dation of having a practical bearing upon other investigations
which have been conducted from time to time, and which
III. 1
2 The Tlieory of the Picturesque.
directly or remotely involve in tliemselves the decision of this
primary one. Thus there is the old question: Is the notion of
the Picturesque ancient, or only modem ? In other words : Is
the term the representative of a principle which must always
have been acknowledged, as being based on some ultimate and
immutable fact of the human mind ; or, hke the words, which,
to use the saying of a philosophical writer,^ *' have their star",
is it but the name and S3rmbol of an idea, which runs its course,
which has had its ascertainable origin, its gradual evolution, its
historical rise and culmination in the intellectual sky ? There is
the question, again, of the bearing of the Picturesque on the
theory of the fine arts: Does it touch upon poetry? Does it
concern architecture? Or, again, is it "classic", or "romantic",
or both? And does it tend to maintain or to destroy, when
duly examined, the specious but deceptive (as we believe) and
indefinite theory thence named? We might go on, it is pos-
sible, to suggest other intellectual problems similar to these, with
each of which it might conceivably have points of connection ;
but we have said enough, as it is, to show the suggestiveness of
our subject.
We begin then by taking for granted, what in fact we have
abeady impHed in our first words, that the Picturesque is com-
prehended under the beautiful, and is one form of it. What
then is the Beautiful? Here there is no answer forthcoming
which can be called authoritative. The professed treatises on
the subject can hardly be said, any of them, to be held in high
estimation ; and as in general they are neither deep nor accurate,
it would be a waste of time to discuss what we cannot acquiesce
in. ^ Hence \ve are thrown in some measure, for the determi-
nation of this preliminary point, on our own resources ; and in
the execution of this task, so far as is necessary for the inquiry
before us, we hope not to be shallow whilst we attempt to be
comprehensive.
We reject then,^ we say, once for all, and without the ceremony
of a minute examination, all such theories as that of Alison, who
would make the Beautiful simply consist in association ; all such
theories as that of Burke, who would be content to identify the
beautiful with the merely agreeable (the icaXov with the r]^v),
who would call sweetness, for example, beautiful to the taste,
in the same sense in which a flower, a picture, or the window of
a Gothic cathedral, is beautiful to the sight ; all such theories as
that of Dugald Stewart, which goes fai' towards identifying the
Guizot, " Civilisation in Europe'', cli.
Tlie Theory of the Picturesque. 3
beautiful with the useful or the appropriate, and would explain
it on the theory of an adaptation of means to ends ; all such
theories as that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who held the beautiful
to consist in a mean between two extremes ; so that the Greek
nose, for example, would be beautiful, as being the due medium
between that of the Roman and the Negro ; who, in short, inter-
preted the beautiful simply on a theory of habit, even to the
extent of believing that if that which we now are accustomed to
call ugliness had predominated in the world, we should feel in it
the same pleasure which we now do in the beautiful; — nor,
finally, can we accept as sufficient even the theory which has
the singular recommendation of being at once the earliest and the
latest propounded on this subject, that of the Greek school of
philosophy — of St. Augustine, of Coleridge, and of the Pere
Andre, — we mean the doctrine that beauty is unity, or, to ex-
press it as is occasionally done, is " plurality in unity", or the
combination of the many into one, so as to form a whole. Our
objection to this definition is the vagueness of the word unity,
which may signify anything or nothing, as we choose to take it.
As an instance of what we mean, we may borrow the illustration
proposed, if we remember right, by Plotinus, that of the triangle.
The triangle, he says, is the first-born of beauty, as being the
most elementary combination possible of the " many" to form
*' one". Now it is obvious to ask, if the connection of tliree lines
into a definite figure is a creation of the beautiful, as being the
union into a whole of three parts, what are we to say to the
figure resulting from the union of three lines of unequal length ?
The scalene triangle, which is the figure in question, is certainly
not beautiful, though it realises the definition, or seems to do
so ; and consequently the definition itself is either obscure or not
true.
Setting aside, then, these several accounts of the Beautiful, as
inexact or inadequate, and looking round for a more complete
definition, if such is to be obtained, let us observe for a moment
how much is popularly comprehended in the idea of the beauti-
ful. If it be difficult of definition, this might seem certainly to
be owing, on taking our first view of it, to the number and va-
riety of the manifestations in which it is presented. Thus it is
exhibited not in space only, but in time, not in rest only, but in
motion; — in space and in rest, as in the forms of the visible
creation, both animate and inanimate ; in time and in motion, as
in all that is called " graceful". It is realised again, not only in
the phenomena of sight, and here in the two several manifes-
tations of form and colour, but in the phenomena of soimd also,
and here in the two manifestations of melody and harmonv.
1 B
4 The Theory of the Picturesque.
Affain, not in the world of sense only, but in tlie world wliich
is supersensuous. It is common to speak of moral and intellectual
beauty, as well as physical. There is the beauty of prose and of
poetry ; there is the beauty of virtue ; there is the beauty of the
Divine Attributes. In short, hardly anytliing is there, in heaven
or in earth, in mind or in matter, which cannot become, under
certain conditions, what, in the ordinary language of men, is
called beautiful ; and how, it may be asked, are we to chain into
a definition a spirit ever restlessly investing itself in forms so
different ?
We reply, that a careful consideration of these and the like
instances of the beautiful, usually and popularly so called, will
authorise us to distinguish between the "Beautiful", in the strict
sense of the term, and the "Poetical"; and, proceeding on this
distinction, we shall venture to include all that is properly called
beautiful under the definition of harmony^ and to refer the beau-
tiful, improperly so called, or what we now name the poetical,
to the head of association. We are not saying, it will be ob-
served, that the Beautiful and Poetical never meet and intermingle
in the same subject ; nothing, on the contrary, is more common :
but we say that the two are always distinguishable in idea, and
may be separate in fact. Harmony, then, is the philosophy of
the Beautiful, and association its poetry. Such is our funda-
mental position, and the necessary explanation of each shall now
follow.
1. In saying that Beauty, in the proper sense of the word, is
harmony, we assert, what will certainly be admitted, that the
beautiful is made up of parts, and that the essence of the beauti-
ful lies in the mode of the combination of those parts. So much,
indeed, is implied, and truly, in the definition of the beautiful by
the old Greek pliilosophers, before given, — " Multeity in imity".
Were it otherwise, — were it possible, that is, for a single and in-
dividual object, as such and in strictness of speech, to be called
beautiful, there would be no distinction assignable between the
beautiful and the merely agreeable, — by the latter term being
meant the direct gratification of any one of the five senses ; and
the attempt to estabhsh any principle or law of the Beautiful
would then be as nugatory as to theorise upon the satisfaction re-
Bultm^ from the fragrance of the rose or the colour of crimson.*
Will It be objected that colour, simple and elementary as it is, is
yet beautiful ^ we reply that, on the contrary, we have in colour,
when carefully considered, a proof of our assertion, that beauty is
* This is well insisted on and brought out in the Essays on the Beautiful, by
tolendge, preserved in Cottle's " Kecoilections" of that writer.
The Tlieory of the Picturesque. 5
harmony ; for, though it is common indeed to hear the particular
colour crimson, or blue, or purple, and so on, called beautiful, yet
that this is an incorrect use of the term, and nothing more, must
be inferred from the circumstance, that so soon as any one colour
is set in juxta- position with another, as in a picture or church
window, it immediately becomes beautiful or not beautiful, ac-
cording as it harmonises or not with the accompanying colour.
So is it in colours ; so is it, as we shall presently see, in the case
of forms ; but, omitting these for the moment, let us next test the
definition in the instance of what is called grace. *' In beauty",
says Lord Bacon, in his essay on that subject, "favour" (or " form",
as we should now say) " is more than colour, and decent and gra-
cious motion is more than favour. This is the best part of beauty,
which a picture cannot express, nor the first sight of the life".
Grace, then, being beauty in motion, and time being the " mea-
sure of motion", and time and space being, as to their metaphy-
sical character, analogous, we shall be justified in using the word
" harmony" in its original and more extended signification (that
of apfiovta), in expressing by it, that is, not the mutual rela-
tions of objects in space only, or what in music is harmony pro-
perly so called, but the relations of sequence or succession in time
also, or what in music is called at the present day melody ; and
we think it reasonable to assert that, in this wider employment of
it, the term harmony can be applied to the beautiful, not only a3
we perceive it in space and in a state of repose, but also as it
comes before us under the conditions of time and motion, when
we distinguish it as the graceful. Thus the curved or undulating
line, to which the name of the " line of beauty and grace" has
especially been given, is one which we follow with the eye from
end to end. We might define it, — and the same definition would
suit the sequence of a musical air, — as " unity in progression".
And thus a flower and a tree, of which the outlines mainly con-
sist of flowing or curved lines, as the harebell or the willow, are
confessedly graceful. Thus the dance also is graceful ; and the
verse in Wordsworth, " She seemed as happy as a wave, that
dances on the sea", suggests the closeness of its analogy to the
flowing or undulating line. So, when Virgil describes birds
singing, and Lucretius the motion (" decent and gracious") of
the clouds in Heaven, they use language so similar that the one
might almost have been suspected of having copied the other.
*' JEthera mulcebant cantu" is the expression in Virgil applied to
the birds' music. " ^era mulcentes motu" is the singularly beau-
tiful and poetical expression applied in Lucretius to the clouds'
movement. He is speaking of the drifting of clouds over the
face of a clear sky ; and he sets before us in this admirable half
6 The Theory of the Picturesque.
line a sort of photograph of their gradual and graceful variations
of outline as the j move onwards : —
" Nee speciera mutare suam liquentia cessant,
Et quoiusqueinodi formaruru vertere in ora".'
We might multiply instances in point, were it necessary to do
so ; but we may suppose the position we are maintaining to be now
granted — namely, that grace, as being of the nature of a musical
movement, may be included, like beauty in repose, under the
head of harmony. We will, therefore, now proceed, in the last
place, to give an illustration of what we mean, when we say that
mvisible and supersensuous beauty is also harmony, and may thus
be comprehended under the same definition with all other beauty.
And it is ascending at once to the highest exemplification of
which the subject is capable, when we refer to the Omnipotent
Author Himself of all beauty. He who is the Almighty, the
All- wise, and the All-holy, is also, in the language of divines, the
All-beautiful. And theology completes the crown of His attri-
butes with this last, as intending to express by it the confluence
in Him, and harmonious connection among themselves, of all the
others. " Order and harmony", says Dr. Newman,* in a most
apposite passage, " are of His very essence. To be many and
distinct in His attributes, yet, after all, to be but one, — to be
sanctity, justice, truth, love, power, wisdom, to be at once each
of these as fully as if He were nothing but it, and if the rest
were not, — this impHes in the Divine Nature an infinitely sove-
reign and utterly incomprehensible order, which is an attribute
as wonderful as any, and the result of all the others". . . .
. . . " Such", he afterwards goes on to say, " is the unity and
consequent harmony and beauty of the Divine Nature". The
theological doctiine is, in fact, the interpretation of the dim
dream of heathen philosophy on the same subject. The past,
the present, and the future of the world's history, chanted by the
fates, and blending in sublime harmony with the music of the
spheres,— such is the Platonic adumbration in the splendid fable*
of the fulness of the beatific vision of the All-beautiful.
2. The above, then, are specimen instances out of many which
might be given in proof that Beauty in all its manifestations is of
the nature of harmony. We have now to say something on the
second of the two heads before mentioned, namely, the principle
of association, which we have called the poetry of the Beautiful,
as distinct from its philosophy. How mtimately, indeed, this
» Lucretius, IV., 136. ■• Occasional Sermons, p. 251. ^ RepubUc, suh.Jin.
The Theory of the Picturesque. 7
principle is connected in fact, though it is not to be identified in
theory, with the effect which a beautiful object produces upon
the mind, is sufficiently evident from such treatises as the once
popular one of Alison, already alluded to, whose resolution of
the Beautiful is simply and merely that it is the awakening in
the mind of a train of agreeable associations, and who would
never have been elevated into an oracle on a basis so insufficient,
were it not that every one must feel that he is right in the obser-
vations he makes, so far as this, that they are true but apparently
immaterial, his mistake being, that he substitutes an attribute, a
phenomenon, a separable accident of the Beautiful, for its real
essence. The same is the case with a popular writer of this day
— Mr. Ruskin. At bottom he is wholly an associationist as
regards his theory of the Beautiful no less than Alison, and in
page after page of his many volumes unfolds the poetry of his
subject with an exuberant eloquence, while in his attempts at a
philosophical analysis of it, he is meagre and inadequate, or rather
he is perpetually offering us poetry, which he calls philosophy.
Thus we sympathise, for example, with the poetical feeling which
makes him associate the form of the arch in pointed Gothic with
the shape of the leaves in one-half of the vegetable kingdom,
while at the same time we reject the philosophy which would
assert the fact of this correspondence to be a satisfactory reply to
the question. Why is the pointed arch beautiful in a Gothic cathe-
dral? We maintain, on the contrary, in direct opposition to
these writers, that association, so far from being identical with
the Beautiful, or a part of its essence,, stand in the sort of relation
to it that expression, as it is called, in the human face does to
regular features. Their beauty consists in their regularity ; it is
a matter of symmetry, proportion, and harmony ; it is something
objective and external; it is reducible to rule; it is independent
of the caprice or particular impression of our own mind. But,
on the other hand, we connect the "play" of a countenance with
the character, the thoughts, the emotions, the alternations and
variations of feeling in the inner man. Momentary and ever-
changing, it is like the sparkling of light on the surface of a sea
of which the depths have been agitated. Here, then, is a pro-
cess of association correctly so called; here is something unsys-
tematic, indefinite, irreducible to rule or measvire, incapable of
analysis, in a word, here is poetry. And, as it is certainly com-
mon on the one hand to hear of features being described as beau-
tiful because regular, yet as unpleasing, nevertheless, because
vacant ; and, on the other, as pleasing, because full of expression,
though not beautiful; and as the perfection of excellence is
admitted to be where both qualifications unite in one person, —
8 The Theory of the Picturesque.
we have here a perfect illustration both of the manner in which
harmony, viewed as the philosophy of the Beautiful, is complete
without association, and of the poetical grace independent of, and
beyond itself, which it may borrow from association.
Thus music, to take another instance, independently of those
fixed laws of material harmony or melody by which it is beauti-
ful, awakens also in the mind, there is no doubt, certain dreamy
and subtle chords of imaginative association and feeling, which
make it eminently poetical. Light, on the other hand, according
to the same view, would be beautiful, not strictly and philoso-
phically — for, of course, there cannot be harmonious relations
where there are no parts, — but still poetically in the highest
degree, for what have we in light but a pure, immaterial, immu-
table, life-like, inconceivably swift, all-encompassing, dazzlmg
emanation from a world above — "a^thereum sensum, atque aurai
simplicis ignem", — which is fraught with associations of all that
is divinest and most perfect ?
And, lastly, to test the definition in the instance of literary
description or word-painting : — That the Beautiful here also may
have the poetical superadded, and may be elevated even to the
grandest sublimity by the power of association, can hardly be
evidenced more completely than in the following description,*
the divine original of which, in St. John's prophecy, will be re-
membered by every one : —
" And who is he, yon rast and awful form,
Girt with the whirlwind, sandal'd with the storm j
A western cloud around his limbs is spread ;
His crown a rainbow, and a sun his head :
To highest heaven he lifts his kingly hand,
And treads at once the ocean and the land;
And hark his voice amid the thunder's roar,
His dreadful voice, that time shall be no more".
Here is certainly a picture so complete, so definite, so radiant,
so harmonious in form and colour, so simply beautiful, that were
it realised on canvas it would command admiration as a master-
piece of angehc grace and celestial dignity. But the point to be
msisted on is, that in addition to the form and the colour which
made it beautiful as a picture, there is a combination of sublime
symbols which make it wonderfully poetical. The cloud, the
rainbow, and the thunder, stand for the attributes of mercy and
judgment characteristic of the Omnipotent King whom the angel
personifies ; and since half the efiect of the representation depends
• Hebcr's Palestine ; Comp. Apoc. x.
p
TJie Theory of the Picturesque.
on these symbols, that effect is so far to be ascribed, not, we say,
to the picture, but to the high associations indirectly awakened
by the picture.
So much in preparation for the inquiry which is our immediate
concern, into the nature of the Picturesque.
We have been occupied thus far in distinguishing between the
two principles of harmony and association in their relation to
the Beautiful; and we have determined the essence of the
Beautiful to consist in harmony, and association to be connected
with it only as an addition ah extra, and as rendering it poetical.
This distinction, then, we shall now employ, to disembarrass our
inquiry of the ambiguity which would otherwise beset it, owing
to the fact of the Picturesque being accidentally encompassed with
so much that is romantic and imaginative. For, as it so happens
that it is the not unfrequent concomitant of decay or ruin, the
temptation has been great among theorists on this subject, to
make associations of decay and ruin, an element in its definition ;
in other words, make the principle of it consist in the eccentric, the
abnormal, and the distorted ; and thus by a curious inversion, to
discover in it, a deflection from the true type of the beautiful rather
than a fulfilment of it. Here we are reminded once more of Mr.
Ruskin's mode of philosophising on these matters. He also finds
the key to the Picturesque, as may be supposed, in a theory of
association ; though in fact he advances it in a form somewhat
different from that just alluded to. He defines it to be " parasi-
tical sublimity", and, in explanation of his meaning, gives the
instance of a Swiss chalet, with the large and irregularly shaped
stones, set, as usual, upon its roof, to secure it from the violence
of the weather. These stones, he says, are the source of its
picturesqueness, and are such, not in themselves, and as they
stand on the cottage roof, but by virtue of an intellectual process
in the mind of the beholder, who first associates them in
thought with the adjoining mountain from which they are taken,
and then mentally invests them with the sublimity attaching
to that mountain. It is enough, however, to have noticed
this theory, and those akin to it, in a passing sentence ; and we
are exempted by all that has already been said, from further
dwelling on it. Association and romance may add poetical
interest, no doubt, to the picturesque object; but if they may
reasonably be excluded from any part in the theory of the
Beautiful, so also may they safely be rejected from that of pic-
turesque iDcauty.
The Picturesque, then, as its very name indicates, must be re-
ferred for its ultimate explanation to the art of the painter. It
10 Tlie Tlieory of the Picturesque.
must be realised, that is in one or both of the two elements of
form and colour. So much, if the principle of association be set
aside, as just said, may be taken for granted. Moreover, it being
impossible to have colour in a pictorial composition apart from
form, whilst of course it is possible to have form without colour,
as in an engraving, a photograph, or at any rate in a mere out-
line, we shall be simplifying our subject as well as adhering to
the essential and disregarding the non-essential, in setting aside
the consideration of colour, and confining our attention entirely
to that of form. If the picturesque, then, be reducible to the
general head of the beautiful in form, and if the beautiful in
form be reducible, like the beautiful in colour and the beauty of
motion, to the head of harmony, we can hardly go astray in pro-
nouncing the essence of the picturesque to be dependent, directly
or indirectly, on what is called symmetry ; inasmuch as harmony
in the arrangement of Hues is symmetry.
What, then, is the symmetry which distinguishes picturesque
beauty from beauty in general? Here it will be convenient
to recur to the illustration of the beautiful already alluded to, as
having been proposed by the ancient philosophers, — the triangle.
There are three forms of the triangle r the scalene, of which the
sides are none of them equal to each other; the isosceles, of
which two are equal and one is unequal ; the equilateral, of which
all three are equal. The scalene, then, is wholly unsymmetrical ;
the isosceles, imperfectly symmetrical ; and the equilateral, per-
fectly. The scalene also is certainly not beautiful ; whereas the
isosceles and the equilateral both satisfy the eye, and by reason
of their regularity, and, though dissimilar to each other, can
neither of them submit to be set aside as not beautiful. There
is a difference, however, between the two, and that an impor-
tant one.
The equilateral triangle, in consequence of the very perfection
of the symmetrical harmony of its component parts, has the cha-
racter of formality. So it is with flowers ; they are beautiful,
abstractedly from their colours, with a geometrical beauty ; their
effect, generally speaking, being produced by the systematic dis-
position of their petals, which are the repetition of each other,
round a common centre. So it is, in like manner, with the ca-
lidoscope ; that instrmnent, by the mere power of a symmetri-
cal multiplication, converting a chaos of disorder into magical
beauty ; still into beauty of a limited range only, as being, by
the necessity of the case, always formal. The isosceles triangle,
on the other hand, is saved from being formal at the expense of
being less completely symmetrical ; and its third side, which is
irregular or unsymmetrical, as compared with the other two, is of
The Tlieory of the Picturesque. 11
the nature of a discord in music, as employed by a great master.
It tempers a harmony which would otherwise be too perfect to
be quite symmetrical.
Here, then, we get a glimpse of the true reply to the question
above put, viz.. What is the symmetry which distinguishes pic-
turesque beauty from ordinary beauty? for the most cursory
consideration of all that is generally included under the name
picturesque, will lead us to see that its chief characteristic is a
certain irregularity ; formal it assuredly is not, whatever else it
is. We will accordingly distribute all beauty into formal, on the
one hand, and picturesque, on the other. And, speaking broadly
and generally, we have the types of these two divisions of the
beautiful in the two triangles just mentioned : viz., of the formal
in the equilateral, and of the informal, or picturesque, in the
isosceles.
For the more complete illustration of the distinction here
drawn, let us now place ourselves in imagination in the presence
of any particular masterpiece we please of classical architecture,
only supposing it to be as perfect as on the day when it was ori-
ginally set up by Pericles at Athens, or by Augustus at Rome.
It may be the front of the Parthenon, or the portico of the Pan-
theon, or the Maison Carree of Nismes, or that successful imita-
tion of the antique, the Madeleine at Paris. Anyhow we shall
have before us a range of columns, Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian,
as the case may be ; perfect in their parts, their heights, their
proportions, their inter-columniations ; above these the horizon-
tal entablature, adorned with its appropriate decorations accord-
ing to the style of the architecture ; and above this again, and
crowning the whole, the pediment, with its obtuse-angled tri-
angle, forming at once the termination of the roof of the temple
and the frame of a series of exquisite representations in sculpture
arranged within it. Now, such a creation as this is emphatically
and by universal consent beautiful ; — as beautiful in its particular
department as anything that can be named ; yet assuredly it is
no subject for the painter. He might do his best indeed, were
he compelled to design it, in the way of adapting it to a picture,
whether by taking it at an angle, or by setting it on the summit
of some iTigged and commanding rock, as the Parthenon on the
Acropolis ; or by relieving it with the undulating hues of trees
and clouds ; or by breaking up its uniformity, in casting upon it
broad lights and irregular shadows ; but were he to draw the
front of the building as we have described it, and apart from
such accessories or details as we have just been imagining, he
would produce, not a picture, but an architectural elevation.
The result, in fact, though perfectly beautiful in its own way,
12 The Theory of the Picturesque.
would be irremediably formal ; and where is the spell that shall
evoke a manifestation of the picturesque from materials so un-
promising ?
In the " Bridal of Triermain", we read of a knight, who,
weary of continually watching before a pile of rocks, which re-
mained nothing but rocks, though a magical castle was said to be
concealed within them, at length flung his battle-axe at the chiFs
which rose above him, and splintered off a fragment of the mass
in so doing, when the charm being thus broken, the enchanted
fortress immediately burst upon his view in all its reality. Now
we may try a somewhat similar experiment in the present in-
stance with equal success. For the castle-rocks of St. John,
which the knight struck, let us substitute the faqade of the classic
temple just imagined, and let the blow of the battle-axe be repre-
sented by some partial disturbance of the severe regularity of the
outlines which bound the structure ; let the pediment be some-
what broken away ; let one or two of the pillars be displaced or
broken off short at different elevations ; let the continuity of their
fluting be disturbed, let them be eaten into by the weather, and
overhung and tufted in places with creepers or wild flowers ; let
the monotony of their marble be diversified with moss and lichen ;
and let the ground at their foot be broken and heaped up in hil-
locks : and behold a nobler creation of the beautiful than we had
before; dum moritur resurgit; from the prison of the formal has
come out the beauty of the informal, for in the ruin we have the
subject of the pencil, the delight of the artist, the material for
the sketch book, in short, the very embodiment of the pictu-
resque in all its perfection.
We repeat that we have here gi^n what every one must
admit to be a specimen of the picturesque, true, adequate, a.nd
complete, omnibus numeris, and the principle of the picturesque
may now be easily deduced from the consideration of it. It is,
in fact, a disturbed symmetry; and where it is realised most
completely, will be found to be a pretty accurate equilibrium of
the symmetrical and the unsymmetrical, neither absolutely pre-
ponderating to the disadvantage of the other. Hence, while the
modes in which it admits of being exhibited are very various,
the essence of every such exhibition will be always tliis, all that
is possible in regularity short of formal arrangement, and all that
is possible in freedom short of no arrangement at all or mere dis-
order. There must be an interpenetration, so to express it, of
the formal by the informal ; there must be at once correspondence
and diversity, harmony and contrast. This, and this only, is the
picturesque ; and of this the isosceles triangle, as before said, is
the simplest manifestation.
The Theory of the Picturesque. 13
Should any one yet hesitate to acquiesce in this definition, under
the feehng that after all it may be still association which is the
charm of the ruin, and not the form of it, let him return again to
the supposed temple, and consider what would be the effect of an
entire abolition of those proportions which he is so little disposed
to identify with its picturesqueness. That in its formal or com-
plete state, the piece of architecture in question is unpicturesque,
has been made evident already ; now, on the other hand, that an
utter absence of form, or simple disorder and confiision, is unpic-
turesque also, may be proved to demonstration, by pursuing to
its limits that stgne process of demolition by means of which we
rendered the temple picturesque in the first instance. Carry on,
in fact, the supposed disintegration of the building little by little,
and you will find, that at a certain stage of the proceeding you
reach a critical turning point, beyond which every step in ad-
vance ceases to be a creation of the picturesque, and becomes the
corruption of it ; till at length, when column, pediment, and en-
tablature fie in shapeless confusion on the ground, corruption
has become absolute dissolution, and the picturesque has vanished.
It has come, it has been seen in its perfection, it has passed away
and has been destroyed by the identical process by which it has
been erected ; as if the conditions of its existence were those of
the White Lady in the romance, who then first became visible
when the fortunes of the " house", with whose destiny her own
was interwoven, had fallen into decfine ; whose zone gradually
dwindled as the ruin proceeded, and who was fated to perish
altogether at the moment of its consummation.
The picturesque, then, is, in its essence, a due combination of
the formal and the informal, and it is important to observe that
this is the definition, the most natural and antecedently pro-
bable in a philosophical point of view, of any which could be
given ; for the discernment of likeness and unlikeness, which are
only other names for that system of symmetry and inten-uption,
of correspondence and contrast, which we recognize in the pic-
turesque, is an elementary power and necessity in the human
mind : hence it is a principle of universal application ; latissime
patet. " The perception", it has been said,^ " of similitude in
dissimilitude is the great spring of the activity of our minds, and
their chief feeder. . . . It is the life of our ordinary conversa-
tion ; and upon the accuracy with which similitude in dissimili-
tude, and dissimilitude in similitude are perceived, depend our
taste and our moral feelings". Thus it is the secret, for example,
Wordsworth — Preface to Poems ; and compare Coleridge's Kemains.
14 TJie Tlieory of the Picturesque.
as others have pointed out, of the reason why we prefer the mar-
ble statue to the more perfect imitation of the human form which
may be made in wax-work. Thus in poetry, again, it is the ulti-
mate principle of the entire scheme of metre, versification, and
rhyme, and of the system of parallelisms, which constitutes the
versification of the Hebrews ; of metre, for it is here the simili-
tude and dissimilitude of time or measure ; of rhyme, for it is here
the similitude and dissimilitude of recurring sound ; of parallelism,
for it is here the similitude and dissimilitude of mental concep-
tions. It is the main principle, in short, of the charm residing in
all imitation of whatever kind.
This law, then, of our condition, that we should be incessantly
comparing and contrasting, contrasting and comparing, and find-
ing pleasure in the recognition of the like in the midst of the un-
like, being identical, in fact, with the law which constitutes the
picturesque, we may naturally expect a principle so universal to
admit, even in the particular province of the picturesque, of ex-
tensive apphcation ; and, in truth, it is hardly too much to say
that, according to the variety of the employment of it, is the
success, the beauty, and the perfection, so far as form is con-
cerned, of a pictorial composition. Thus, an object may be
picturesque, for example, in jtself, according to the definition of
the picturesque above given ; or, on the other hand, it may be
picturesque only or mainly when in juxta-position with a second
object, partly resembhng the first, and partly differing ; it being
just this union of resemblance and diiference which constitutes
the picturesque. Or, again, each of the two objects may be pro-
perly picturesque in itself, or taken separately ; and the two may
also create the picturesque when taken conjointly. An oak, for
example, if well grown, is a picturesque tree. Its stem is just a
sufficient departure from a straight line to save it from being
formal, and its foHage groups into masses corresponding one to
another in character, yet not rigorously uniform, — repeating
one another with variations, and perpetually suggesting a sym-
metry which they stop short of completing. If a tree, then, such
as this, be introduced into a picture alongside of a piece af archi-
tectural ruin of the kind before mentioned, the one, to use the
common expression, will set off the other, in a manner and to a
degree in which neither one tree would set ofif another tree, nor
one ruin another ruin ; or, in other words, owing to the character
of their outlines, there will be at once a certain difference in the
opposed masses, and a certain correspondence, and the picturesque
will be the result.
^ It would be easy to continue these illustrations almost indefi-
nitely. What, for example, is the secret of that picturesqueness
The Theory of the Picturesque. 15
of tlie Swiss chalet, which Mr. Ruskin mistakenly attributes to
" parasitical sublimity"? It is simply, that the rough masses of
irrco-ular stone with which the roof is studded, interrupt what
would otherwise be the over-formality and regularity of the lines
of the building. Why is it, again, that the painter, who has a
picturesque object to copy, avoids giving it a place in the exact
centre of his paper ? It is the fear lest, by consequently dividing
his paper into equal parts, he should give an air of formality to
his drawing, which would destroy its picturesqueness. Or, again,
what makes him prefer taking his building, be it castle or cottage,
at an angle, in preference to a front view of it ? It is obviously
the feeling that the slanting lines thus produced by the necessity
of the perspective, tend to mitigate that decided formality which
would be the consequence of a front view. Or, again, why is
he so fond of balancing the two sides of his picture ? Why will
he put a small tree on the left hand over against a large one on
the right, a large rock on the right to balance a small one on the
left, unless always with the intention of producing a certain cor-
respondence without formality ? In the case of a historical pic-
ture, as distinct from landscape, the introduction of the same
principle of arrangement is more remarkable still, for there, if
any where, the dignity or the interest attaching to the exhi-
bition of human action or passion, to expression in countenance
and feature, and to animation in form, might seem enough in
itself for the highest purposes of the artist, without the addi-
tion of the particular element we are here treating of Yet it
presents itself, in fact, in what are called the " forms of com-
position" employed by the great masters. In other words, some
regular figure, whether the triangle, the circle, the oval, the
figure of eight, the St. Andrew's cross, or any other, is made the
basis of the composition or grouping of the different personages
which are the subject of the picture ; not, however, in such a
manner that the employment of the figure in question becomes
prominently conspicuous; but here is again that peculiar inter-
mingling of the formal and the informal which constitutes the
picturesque. The severe regularity of the figure is just so far
discernible as to give harmony and repose to the irregular life
and action out of which it is created, and is so far indiscernible
as only to regulate a freedom which it would otherwise imprison.^
We have now pursued, we think, the philosophy of the sub-
ject pretty nearly to its limits, and if correctly, how false must
be the supposition of those who would limit the perception of the
* Compare, again, the Lectures on the Beautiful, by Coleridge, in Cottle's
"Recollections".
16 The Theory of the Picturesque.
Picturesque to modem times, and deny it any place in the minds
and the feeHngs of those ancients of Greece and Rome, who have
generally been looked up to in matters of intellect and taste as
unapproachable models. To trace up the picturesque to an ele-
mentary principle of the intellect is virtually- to assert the impos-
sibility of its being thus limited. Who in point of fact can
imagine, we will not say an Apelles, a Praxiteles, or a Phidias,
not the author of the Belvidere Apollo, or the Medicean Venus,
not that Homer, who could so vividly paint the scudding of a
storm, or the moonUght upon the crags, or the wave gathering
in the distance, and coming in, and bursting on the shore, — not
any one of the great authors in poetry whose names are famous,
but even any ordinary contemporary of theirs, with common
taste and refinement, looking at a regular landscape composition
of the present day by Claude or Turner, and not appreciating its
beauty ; or surveying, we will say, without pleasure the broken
arches, the ivy-mantled columns, and the half-shattered tracery
of the windows of Tintem Abbey; or wandering "siccis oculis"
along the Rhine, with no feeling for the charm of the confoiTnation
of those piles of mediaeval masonry on its banks, so regular at once
and so irregular ; so symmetrical, yet so relieved from formality
in their fantastic accumulation of turret, or battlement, or pinnacle,
on side or summit, that they have all the picturesqueness of the
ruin without being such ? As reasonably might we raise a doubt
whether he had an eye for the regular proportions of the square
or circle. Moreover, the evidence of facts confirms the ante-
cedent probability; for, whatever stress may be laid (extrava-
gantly enough, as we think, yet it is sometimes done) on the
particular case of the formality of the gardens of Alicinous,
described in Homer, or on the absence, if so be, of any elaborate
landscape composition in the ancient poets, nothing is more cer-
tain than that passages can be produced, which, even apart from
antecedent probabilities, and much more, admitting them, may
fairly be considered to show as keen an appreciation of the pic-
turesque, in the fullest sense of the word, in those writers, as is
to be found in any passage of poetry in modern times. There
are two instances out of many, which occur in Virgil, the one
poet who, from his passionate admiration of the country and all
belonging to it, is naturally the author we first turn to in a ques-
tion of this kind. First, his notice of the view unfolding before
the eyes of the shepherd, as the road turns :
" Janique sepulchrum
Incipit apparere Bianoris";—
How few are the word**, yet how perfectly picturesque is the
Hie Theory of the Picturesque. 1 7
scene wliich they combine to flash upon us. " Incipit apparere" :
— It is a landscape, tlie leading feature of wKicli is a sepulchre,
hoary with all its associations of the ancient past (like the tomb,
we may suppose, of Cecilia Metella in the Appian Way, now exist-
ing) ; and it is a sepulchre, moreover, half seen, as it gradually
emerges from the trees at the road-side ; hence its regular out-
lines are partly hidden, and so relieved of their formality, by the
foliage of those trees, whilst enough of them is shown at the
same time to form a contrast with the lines of that foliage and of
the landscape, and with the bend of the pathway which forms
the foreground. The picture, in short, is drawn by the poet
precisely as it would be certainly drawn by the professed painter.
The second, and if possible more complete picture, of which we
are thinking, is that of the reclining shepherd watcliing, from
imder the leafy arch of the cavern in which he is resting, his
goats hanging from the thicket- tufted sides of the distant rock: —
" Non ego vos posthac viridi projectus in antro
Dumosa pendere procul de rupe videbo".
If any one will seriously maintain that the grouping of the
numerous features of the scene here described is other than
strictly picturesque, or could have been conceived or described
by any one not naturally possessing a keen sense of the pictu-
resque, we are at a loss to understand how poetry can be appealed
to at all for determining the question ; least of all, the poetry of
those ancients, whose singular glory and prerogative, as com-
pared with the moderns, is their indirectness ; who utter what is
poetical mthout the appearance of the incumbering self-con-
sciousness that they are so doing, and whose genius in conse-
quence would have been especially disposed to abhor deliberate
scene-painting, or any manufacturing of a landscape in such a
manner as to betray the manufacture.
However, we may suppose our objector to be still unsatisfied,
and his difficulty to proceed from a comparison which we may
conceive him to institute between the classical temple and its
proper correlative in modern times, the Gothic cathedral. He
may point to the spires and to the towers, to the innumerable
pinnacles, the flying buttresses, the pointed arches, the traceried
windows, the quaint carvings, the deep porches, and the cluster-
ing columns, of Amiens or Strasburg, of Cologne or Milan, and
pronounce the Gothic to be decidedly on the whole, a pictures-
que architecture, — picturesque according to the strict definition
we have ourselves given, and commending itself in point of fact,
to the artist, as something ready made to his hand if he wants a
subject, without the absolute need of alterations for that purpose,
III. 2
18 Tlie Theory of the Picturesque.
sucli as we found to be necessary in the case of the Greek
temple. If the Gothic architecture, then, he may argue, is pic-
turesque, and the classic unpicturesque, here is manifestly a
phenomenon, which, notwithstanding all that we have hitherto
said, has still to be accounted for ; nay, which may safely be
asserted to betoken some radical diiference after all in the intel-
lectual constitution of the originators of the two architectures ;
for here he may naturally remind himself of the German distinc-
tion between the classic and the romantic, the inventors of which
have ever specially appealed to the broad differences character-
istic of the two architectures in question, as substantiating the
distinction ; and, though we are not sufficiently at home in the
literature of the " romantic" controversy to know whether it has
been done, we suppose that notliing would be more plausible at
first sight than to press the picturesque into the controversy on
the romantic side. But a little consideration will show that the
difficulty is not so serious that we need be diiven to any unsatis-
factory theory of this kind in order to escape it.
It may seem a contradiction, then, to say it, but the tratli is
that the Greek architecture, which we have been considering as
formal, owes the whole of its beauty nevertheless to the pictu-
resque principle. But our meaning will be understood, if the
conclusion be remembered which was di'awn when discussing the
ruin ; we then saw that the perfectly picturesque was as nearly
as possible the equilibriun of the formal and the informal. For,
this being the case, it will of course follow that every variety of
gradation is possible from the formal onwards to the informal,
till we reaUze that equiHbrium. Thus, if the ruin, to return to
our illustration, be but partially carried out, the result will be
something formal in the main, but with a tendency to the pic-
turesque ; if carried further, yet not sufficiently far, it Avill then
be picturesque in the main, but with a tendency to the formal.
Just in the same way, then, as the Greek temple, when decay first
begins to operate upon it, is a degree more picturesque than it
was, when quite perfect, so, we say, is the perfect temple itself
a degree more picturesque than it would be, were it quite formal ;
or, in other words, in so far as it is not the perfection of for-
mahty, so far is it picturesque. Now it is certainly not the
perfection of formahty, for, were it such, then the pediment,
being a triangle, should be equilateral, which it is not (for,
the base of it being larger in every case than the two sides, it
IS an obtuse-angled isosceles) ; and the rest of the fa9ade, that
IS, the parallelogram on which the pedunent rests, should in like
manner be a square, which it is not, the leading fines of the
Greek aichitecture being horizontal, or, in other words, the
Tlie Theory of the Picturesque. 19
width of the parallelogram being, as a general rule, greater than
the height of it. In like manner, a more perfect formality
would be obtained by the substitution of four-sided for round
cohunns, or again of columns absolutely round like a ruler,
instead of tapering upwards, as they do in the best architecture
towards the capitals. Now as to the pediment, the isosceles tri-
angle of which it consists was adopted by us above, as the very
symbol of picturesque beauty, on the ground of its being the
simplest possible exliibition in Hnes of a disturbed symmetry;
and as to the parallelogram supporting tliis pediment, it will
b^ easy to point out that it is precisely the same sort of ex-
hibition of the picturesque in four lines which the isosceles is
in three. What is it that we admire in a fine specimen of
this part of the fa9ade — for example, in the portico (to take
the first instance presenting itself) of the Pantheon at Rome,
which is an oblong parallelogram of the kind here referred to ?
We say of it that its proportions are admirable. Let us ask,
then, exactly what is meant by this word proportion. Now
we have seen it stated, that it is a common thing for an
architect who would have a room in a house which he is plan-
ning, well proportioned, to secure his object by the following
empirical rule: — He draws any square
ABCD, as in the diagram annexed;
produces the two sides AB and CD
indefinitely to E and F; draws the di-
agonal BC ; from CF cuts off CG equal
to this diagonal; through G draws GH
parallel to AC, and in the parallelo-
gram ACGH has produced a figure, the
proportions of which satisfy the eye and
answer his purpose; whereas any per-
ceptible departure from this form, whe-
ther by protracting or reducing the length
of the parallelogram here drawn, will, so
far as the effect is concerned, distinctly
injure it. What, then, is the explanation
of what we call in this particular case a
good proportion? The word proportion might tempt us at
first sight to imagine that there is some discernible harmony or
correspondence, properly so called, between the longer and the
shorter of the four sides of the parallelogram, as there manifestly
is between the two pairs of sides opposite to each other. Yet
not only is there no such correspondence at all, but even the
charm of the effect is actually due to there being none, as a mathe-
matician will at once see on considering the figure ; for it being a
2 B
20 Tlie Tlieory of the Picturesque.
raatliematical truth that the diagonal of a square is incommen-
suiate with the side of it, it follows that the longer side of the
parallelogram (CG) being equal by construction to the diagonal
CB of the square of AC, is also incommensurate with the shorter
side, which is AC.
Now the above is the analysis of the entire front of the Pan-
theon below the pediment, and there remains a parallelogram
of the kind just described, which itself is divided by pillars
into a series of intercolumniations, consisting of minor parallello-
grams of the same character, at right-angles to the main one.
The comment, then, suggesting itself on the observation of these
facts is the following : — Here is exactly, it would seem, the same
sort of effect produced by the four lines forming the sides of the
parallelogram, which is produced by the three sides forming the
sides of the isosceles triangle, which is the pediment above
the parallelogram. Both the one and the other is an example of
" disturbed symmetry". The parallelogram, that is, exhibits, as
does the triangle, the combination of a certain correspondence
with a certain discordance ; the correspondence being displayed
in the accurate equahty of the sides parallel to each other, and
the discordance in the disparity of the two sides touching
each other, which in fact are mathematically incommensurate, as
just said. On the other hand, had the parallelogi'am of the
facade been so lengthened that the two longer of its sides should
have been exactly the double of the two shorter, a harmony or
common measure would have been then created between the two,
but at the same time the " proportions", so admirable at present,
would have been destroyed by the process.
Remaining true, therefore, as it does, that the Greek architec-
ture, speaking broadly and generally, is decidedly of the formal
kind, and non-picturesque in consequence of so being, still it
would not be what it is, were it not for the picturesque principle.
It is formal because the preponderating effect is on the side of
formality. Thus the parallelogram just considered is absolutely
formal so far as this, that it is composed wholly of straight lines, is
divided into its component parallelograms by straight Hues, that
these lines are all of them arranged on a system of paralleHsm,
that all which are parallel are also equal, and that the angles con-
tained in the figure are all right angles. In all this, we say, the
symmetry is so complete, and the effect thereof so formal, that
the disturbance of this sjrmmetry in the particular instance of the
disproportion between the two sides touching each other in every
parallelogram, is insufficient to establish the balance on the pic-
turesque side.
The Greeks and Romans, then, undoubtedlv understood and
TJie TJieory of the Picturesque. 21
appreciated the picturesque principle, since tliey used it to give
tlie crowning perfection to a formal architecture ; and tlie Gothic
architect, in point of fact, did nothing more than develope this
particular element, already germinant in the classic, in like man-
ner as he developed the simple colonnade and area of the Roman
basilica into the multiplicity of pillars and redundance of aisle
and cloister of his own cathedral. This will be perceived, how-
ever, more distinctly, if we consider for a moment the leading
facts of the history of the formation of this architecture.
"Domus Jacob de populo barbaro"; the " Gospel palaces"
came originally, there is no doubt, from Egypt : for from Egypt
it was that their beginnings, the colonnade and the columnar
temple, such as are to be seen amid the ruins of Thebes at the
present day, were introduced into Greece ; from Greece, where
they underwent great modifications, they were transplanted to
Rome, and there further modified j and the final alterations which
they received afterwards from the architects of the north pro-
duced Gothic. It is also notorious that the main element in that
vitality by which the hall of Ozjniiandyas developed in the
progress of centuries into Cologne Cathedral, was the Roman
addition of the semicircular arch to the Greek column.
Now, this addition was one especially calculated to assist the
development of the new architecture in the picturesque direc-
tion. First, the place of the arch was above the intercolumnar
parallelogram, which became, in consequence, to a certain
amount less formal — that is, more picturesque, than it was pre-
viously. And further, as it so happened that this addition gave
it an extension of form upwards, there followed, in due course,
both the general substitution of the upward or vertical line for
the horizontal, as the dominant one in the new architecture,
whence the after-development of tower, pinnacle, and spire ; and
there followed, in particular, that sharpening of the arch itself,
hitherto semicircular, which was the culminating and crowning
efiect of Gothic development.
If we ask ourselves, then, the question, Why is the pointed
arch so superior, as all acknowledge it to be, in this particular
architecture, to any other variety of it ; why is it the most espe-
cially Gothic of Gothic features ; why is it so perfectly in keep-
ing with the rest of the building ? we shall find that what we
have called the principle of the Picturesque will supply the an-
swer. The excellence of the pointed arch lies in its ministering
to the expression of those two elements of sameness and diflTer-
ence which are the essence of the picturesque, and this, alike if
we consider it in relation to the rest of the architecture, or as
taken by itself. In relation to the rest of architecture, it is pic-
22 TJie Theory of the Picturesque.
turesque, because, wliile in its sharpness and verticalness it is in
harmony with the points, the pinnacles, the spires, and, in a word,
the upward convergence of the whole building, it tempers at the
same time, with a softening operation like that of the sun on
winter frost-work, the angular rigidity of these masses, by the
beautiful contrast of the flow of its own curves. Again, of
itself, and independently of its position, it is picturesque also ; for
while there is symmetry in the two curves composing it, — abso-
lute sjnnmetry, in so far as they are the counterparts of each
other, — there is also disturbance of symmetry in the fact that,
proceeding as they do, either of them, from a different centre,
they are each broken by the other at the point of collision. It
is the semicircle with its centre cut out, and the two sides ap-
proximated ; and accordingly, while in the semicircle we per-
ceive absolute uniformity and undisturbed harmony, the eye fol-
lowing its curve uninterruptedly from end to end, in the pointed
arch, on the contrary, the sweep of the compass leads us inevit-
ably away from the arch when we have followed half of it ;
whence we perceive it to be composed, not of one curve but of
two, and these both of them incomplete because antagonistic.
The pointed arch, then, being confessedly the special and re-
presentative feature in Gothic architecture, and being also as we
have now shown, the very smn and embodiment in itself of the
picturesque principle, we may securely, we think, assume that
the true key to the general analysis of the effect of that architec-
tural system in all its parts, is the principle in question ; the same
principle, as we have said, being the basis also of the combina-
nation of forms in the Greek system, but developed, owmg to
the invention of the arch, in a more abundant material, with
more variety, and to a certain extent, in greater perfection, in
the instance of the Gothic. To pursue it through all its ramifi-
cations as regards Gothic, would be a needless labour ; but we
have in mind more particularly at this moment those singular
and most characteristic creations of good Gothic which are
known as the "grotesques", those fantastic combinations' of
animal and human form, such as they are presented on the
outer wall of Durham Cathedral, or more conspiculously still in
the cloisters of Magdalen College, Oxford; and with the applica-
tion of the picturesque principle to the solution of these pheno-
mena, great perplexities as they confessedly are to all theorists,
and too important, as they may certainly be considered, to be
passed over in silence, we will draw to a conclusion.
The Grotesque, considered in its essence, may be laid down to
be the expression of the conflict of opposite or contradictory
principles m one subject, that subject being a living creature.
TJie Theory of the Picturesque 23
A grotesque face, for example, is one distorted in such a manner
from that composed symmetry, which is the ordmary expres-
sion of intellect and self-control, as to appear to be given
over to the domination of an inferior principle ; and it is under
the form of what is virtually a grotesque figure, that is, under
the form of a combination of man and animal into one, that
Plato in the Republic symbolises the union of the two antagonist
principles of reason and passion in human nature. If the theory,
then, of the Picturesque, which it is the object of this paper to
establish, be true, the Grotesque in this particular point of view
is akin to the Picturesque ; our very definition of the latter being,
if we may repeat again, " disturbed symmetry", or the balance of
the two principles of sameness and variation, regularity and irre-
gularity, proportion and disproportion, in the creation of form
and figure by the combination of lines.
The explanation, then, of the Grotesque, will be parallel to
that which has abeady been given of the pointing of the arch.
That is, whatever may have been, as a matter of history, the
origin of the introduction of the grotesque into Gothic architec-
ture, whether that potent auxiliary of all art, mere accident, as
probably was the case (the proverb tvxk] Tixvr]v ecrrcp^e jcat
Tv\r]v T^x^V being one of the truest), or whether the design, as
some say, of representing moral evil, or whether simply, as Mr.
Ruskin would have it, diseased imagination, — however this may
be, its assthetical justification, at any rate, or, in other words, the
ground of the prominence so especially given it in good Gothic,
was, that the architect who employed it felt it "to be in harmony,
for whatever reason, with the style of the architecture ; the truth
being, whether he understood it or not, that, much in the same
way as the finished elegance and repose of the sculpture enclosed
within the frame of the pediment of the Greek temple, expresses
the harmony and repose predominating in that architecture, so
does the abnormal and irregular life of the grotesque sculptures in
a Gothic cathedral, symbolise that wayward and restless departure
from rule and symmetry which belongs to the Gothic by reason
of its picturesque character.
[In connection with the subject of the preceding paper, the reader is referred to
one by Mr. Cope in the Camhridye Essays for 1856, who views, however, the sub-
ject differently. He quotes a passage from a beautiful chapter in the Cosmos, vol.
ii. p. 372 (Bohn's translation). Humboldt takes an intermediate view, quoting
Schiller, and referring in a note to an excellent paper of Edward Miiller,
" Uber sophokleischeNaturanschaiiung, und die tiefe Naturempfindunq derGrieclien'\
which supports Mr. Scott. The latter had seen Mr. Cope's article, and from
his knowledge of German Literature, must no doubt have been acquainted with
the writers referred to : he does not allude to them, possibly because the question
about the ancients only came incidentally into his discussion. — Ed. J
24
Art. II. — Views preliminary to the study of Political
Economy — By John O'Hagan, A.B.
THE object of political economy is wealth, meaning in a gene-
ral way all objects of human desire which are produced by
industry. The sources and the channels of national wealth ;
the causes which make a nation rich or poor ; the influences
which determine in one way or another the distribution of
wealth in society — all come within the province of Political
Economy. And when we remember how various these causes
and influences are, existing partly in the laws of external things,
but depending in great measure upon the constitution of man
himself, upon his natural wants and capacities, and not only so,
but upon morals, rchgion, customary and positive law — we must
conclude that the circle of studies within which Political Economy
ranges is far from narrow.
There is, however, a limitation of the subject, which writers
upon Political Economy are desirous to impress upon their
readers. Not only have causes residing in the moral and intel-
lectual condition of men an effect upon tlieir state of social
wealth, and as such, come legitimately within the scrutiny of
the economist, but, on the other hand, the condition of a people
or an era in regard to wealth, may have a retroactive effect upon
their thoughts and tendencies, and so upon their morals and
happiness. Into this latter class of inquiries. Political Eco-
nomists, as such, decline to enter. With the uses of wealth in
relation to the higher faculties and destinies of men, they say
their subject has simply nothing to do. Now as no one is bold
enough to assert that wealth constitutes the supreme good of men
or nations, and as few even maintain (though some do) that it
invariably conduces to that good ; as few deny that wealth may
exist in excess or under circumstances leading to evil. Political
Economists are naturally asked, why they exclude that class of
considerations, wliich, if their studies are to have any value at
all, must form their goal and test.
To this they answer: We do so for the sake of method.
Every science has a right to circumscribe itself Every writer is
entitled to make his theme as limited as he pleases, so as he takes
care that his conclusions are made no wider than his premises.
We do not undervalue, they say, the importance of investigat-
ing the relation between wealth and morality or happiness ; all
Vieics preliminary to the study of Political Economy. '2b
we insist on is, that such is not our subject. As a treatise on sKip-
buildincr oniits the topic of maritime-power; as a legal text-
book treats of what the law is, not what it ought to be, leaving
the latter tp the department of jurisprudence; as a writer on
agriculture is excused from discussing the corn -laws ; so, they
say, we claim to be permitted to follow our own class of
researches, without being involved in inquiries which, however
important, are to us irrelevant; we draw our conclusions
within our own precincts as carefully as we can: to apply them
belongs to a wider science — to that which, embracing the whole
nature and circumstances of man, his wants, passions, and capaci-
ties, determines what social arrangements are on the whole good
for him or evil.
All this sounds extremely fair, and is in indeed in point of
theoretical reasoning unanswerable. What is commonly said in
reply is, that PoHtical Economists are inconsistent with their
own professions ; that so far from being neutral on the question of
the intrinsic good of wealth, they are in general zealous advo-
cates on the one side ; that they manifest a desire for the increase
of wealth to an extent perfectly unlimited, and penetrate their
readers with like opinions.
If Political Economists have sinned in this way, and we are
far from acquitting them, it is, we say, the fault of the men, not
of the subject, except in so far as it is common to Political
Economy with all other studies to create a prepossession in its own
favour, and to exalt insensibly in the mind of the student the
value of the things with which it deals. It is natural to ex-
aggerate the importance of that to which we devote time and
effort. — It has been said indeed with truth and point, that it would
be absurd to infer that a writer on tactics means to recommend
perpetual war ; yet, no doubt, a person much given to military
studies, is likely to acquire a taste and desire for military opera-
tions for their own sake, which would unduly bias him in decid-
ing between war and peace. The same observation is prover-
bial with respect to professional influences. And in the case of
wealth especially, which represents almost all natm-al objects of
desire, we can very well understand that it may require no
small degree of reflection and vigilance to guard against this
tendency.
But, apart from all this. Political Economy has been made to
answer for much more than its own sins. In itself it has nothing
to say to hmnan actions in their moral aspect ; yet, as its reason-
ings are mostly based upon that attention of each party to his
own interest, which, in fact, takes place in all matters of barter
and exchange, it has been, to a large extent, looked upon as of
26 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
kindred with the school of moral philosophy which makes self-
interest the legitimate mainspring of all human actions.
Again, the period since Political Economy began to claim
public attention, has been an era, on the one hand, of a develop-
ment of wealth, and a devotion of human energies to its acqui-
sition, without precedent in history, and on the other, of the
gi-owth of large and grievous social evils. How far these facts
stand in the relation of cause and consequence, it would be prema-
ture in this place to inquire ; but many who beheve that they do,
and who feel keenly the extent of the evils, are apt to turn round
upon Political Economy, as if it were a code professing to justify
and let loose an unbounded cupidity — as if it were, in fact, as it
has been termed, the " Gospel of Selfishness". This, we repeat,
is unjust. We are not interested in defending individual writers,
some of whom have gone out of their way to enunciate doctrines
highly false and mischievous; but in the science itself, in its
axioms or principles, so far as they have been wrought out, there
is nothing whatever to prevent him who holds them from being
at the same time a zealous foe of the selfish school in ethics, or
the utilitarian school in politics ; nothing to interfere with any
conviction which he may otherwise form as to the evils of exces-
sive wealth, or of the reign of a material and mercantile spirit in
society.
It is not, under these circumstances, surprising that we should
seek to preface what we may have hereafter to say upon the spe-
cific subjects of Political Economy with some inquiries of a more
fundamental character — inquiries as to the bearing of man's con-
dition, in respect to the production and distribution of wealth,
upon his true good ; how far the actual arrangements of society
in respect to wealth are susceptible of reconstruction ; and again,
what is to be hoped from progress.
We feel convinced that our notions in general upon this class of
subjects are very floating and indeterminate, and that we are, with
respect to them, greatly under the dominion of imagination. Let a
pictm*e be drawn of the pastoral and patriarchal life, or of a pri-
mitive people whose robust and simple manners riches have not
yet come to transform, and we feel ourselves naturally attracted
towards a state of society which the instinct and tradition of
mankind have made typical of the golden age. But again, if we
turn and contemplate the enterprise, acquisitions, and achieve-
ments of some highly prosperous and opulent nation, we yield the
homage of an involuntary respect. We condemn now the pros-
perity which entails corruption, now the penury which forbids
refinement. In one mood we appeal to history, that wealth gives
birth to luxury, which is followed by vice, effeminacy, and
Views prelimwary to the study of Political Economy. 27
national decay; and again, we remember that industry is the
parent of wealth, and ask ourselves, is evil the inevitable off-
spring of good ? Is the world so strangely framed — is human
existence bound by such a fatal chain of paradox, that our very
virtues do little else than accumulate the seeds and materials of
vice?
No doubt the questions thus opened are difficult and momen-
tous to a degree impossible to overstate. If we enter upon them
at all, and ask our readers to accompany us, we must sohcit from
them much indulgence. We may, on the one hand, be found
insisting upon principles so plain that they might appear to admit
of being simply assumed and passed over; and, on the other,
discussing topics of a nature seemingly too exalted for the poH-
tical economist. But we would ask, in the former case, our
readers to believe that, if we dwell upon what may seem truisms,
it is because we conceive their denial to be involved in some more
specious error ; and, in the latter, to remember that, without refe-
rence to the nature and destiny of man, no philosophy of his
social existence is possible.
In the first place, then, and as the basis of all, let us recall the
simple axiom, that society, whatever be its attributes of wealth or
power, exists solely for the sake of men, the individuals. This
fundamental idea — the only one which common sense can under-
stand or accept, the basis of all disquisitions upon politics or
natural law — is yet one likely to be overlooked or implicitly
rejected in epochs in which society, in the aggregate, has ob-
tained a high degree of outward aggrandizement, and is certainly
discordant with much that meets us in the present day. A
fashion of thought has gro^vn up which loves rather to contem-
plate and rest in the collective action of mankind. An old and
natural metaphor, by which we speak of the life that resides in a
state or an institution, has been almost transformed into a literal
fact ; and society, meaning sometimes a nation or cluster of na-
tions, and sometimes the whole human race, is spoken of as if it
were a living being, in such a sense that its greatness and per-
fection could form an end quite apart from the welfare of indivi-
dual men.
This conception may be illustrated, and is indeed often sup-
ported, by analogies drawn from those special and Hmited orga-
nizations, whose end is to be looked for in the work which they
have collectively to accomplish. Take, for example, an army.
No one would say that the comfort or virtue of the individual
soldier is, however desirable, the end for which an army is con-
stituted. Everything else must be subordinate to its excellence
and efficiency as an army. It lives for what it has to do, and is
28 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
successful when tlie town is taken or the campaign is won, with-
out making account of the perishable units of the rank and file.
In some such light do the thinkers to whom we refer regard
states and communities. The end of their existence is the
greatness to which they attain, their victory over difficulties,
their subjugation of the powers of nature, the sciences, arts,
polities, which they develope. Men themselves are weak and
transient. Society has its own vital principle, which endures for
ages. Is it not then, they say, something incomparably higher
and grander to look for the end of human efforts in this con-
tinuous existence, rather than in the fleeting emotions of indi-
viduals ?
But they call on us not to bound our conceptions by the limits
of one state, but to extend them to the family of nations, and
beyond present forms and existences, to those which shall here-
after arise. True, they admit, that the principle of life, which
gives individuality to a nation or an era, ceases at length, but
only ceases, that new forms, new organizations, may arise, rich in
all that has been acquired before them, and adding fresh acquisi-
tions to the store. All that the ancient world has given of
letters and art, of philosophy, statesmanship, and law, — all that
modern ages have added of science and humanizing influences, —
remains the indestructible possession of mankind. Thus, to the
ever-increasing knowledge, power, and greatness of the human
race, there seems absolutely no limit. Do not conceptions like
these, they ask, annihilate all consideration of individuals ? Who
would bestow a thought upon the slaves who wrought at the
Pyramids or the Temples of Carnac? They and their Httle
hour of comparative happiness or misery, are covered by the
night of three thousand years, while the Pyramids and the
Temples remain, an attestation of the greatness of old Egypt — a
contribution to the greatness of collective man.
Ideas such as these, which confer upon abstract existences the
attributes of real being, have, no doubt, considerable power in
captivating the imagination. One cause of their attraction lies
undoubtedly in this, that they seemingly appeal to a true and
noble instinct of man s nature — the instinct of sacrifice, of forget-
fulness of self — the call to merge petty personal ends in the
great circle which surrounds him.
To see this conception, which sinks and absorbs the indivi-
dual, and all individuals, in the idea of the collective existence
of the race itself, asserted vehemently and without reserve, we
would refer to the lectures of the celebrated German philoso-
pher, Fichte, on the characteiistics of the age. This distin-
guished writer not only maintains that the limnan race col-
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 29
lectively possesses an existence, but that it alone possesses real
existence. " The individual life", he says, " has no real exist-
ence, since it has no value of itself, but must and should sink to
nothing ; while, on the contrary, the race alone exists, since it
alone ought to be looked upon as really living". And while he
enforces the necessity of the spirit of sacrifice and forgetfulness of
self, he warns us clearly that he means us to forget oneself,
not in others regarded in a personal character, but in others
regarded as the race. And this life, in the race or in the
idea, he does not shrink from designating as the attainment by
man of eternal life^ when he comes to live, not in himself or in
other individuals like him, but in the one, mighty, progressive,
self-sustaining, perpetual, and infinite life of human kind.'
This extreme and daring development of the idea to which we
have alluded, serves to show us what it radically is, and to what
it tends. For it is inanifest, that in the thought of Fichte, the
idea of collective humanity was exalted into actual Divinity —
that men are called upon to devote themselves to, and annihilate
themselves in, an essence upon which he confers the attribute of
sole real existence — that the idea of humanity is thus, for him
and his school, the object and the outlet for the instincts of reli-
gion and the feeling of the infinite, ineffaceable from the heart of
man, and is actually substituted, in their system, for the Creator
and Governor of the world.
But, apart from mystic conceptions such as these, the idea that
it is possible for man to have a social end, independent of his in-
dividual one, has become largely infused into the spirit of the
age. In M. Guizot's lectures on European Civilization, he refers,
we may remember, to its twofold effect: first, in the deve-
lopment and improvement of the individual; and next, in the
development and improvement of society. He says, and with
justice, that these two effects have a mutual influence, one upon
the other ; that, in general, good institutions have a favourable
action upon the character of the citizens ; and again, that the
character of men is certain to be reflected in their institutions.
But still the great question remains behind, which of these two
objects is principal, and which is subordinate? Let us hear his
own words.
" Of these two developments of which we have spoken, and
which constitute the fact of civilization, of the development of
society on the one hand, and of humanity on the other, which is
the end, which the means ? Is it for the perfecting of his social
condition, for the amelioration of his existence on the Earth, that
' Fichte's Popular Works, vol. 2, Smith's Translation.
30 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
man develops himself altogether — his faculties, his sentiments,
his ideas, his whole being ? Or, on the other hand, is the ame-
lioration of the social condition the progress of society, society
itself no more than the theatre, the occasion, the instrument of
the development of the individual? On the answer to this
question depends inevitably that of knowing if the destiny of
man is purely social, if society exhausts and absorbs the whole
man, or if he bears within him something foreign and superior to
his existence upon Earth. Gentlemen, a man of whom I am
honoured in being the friend — a man who has passed through
meetings such as ours, to ascend to the first place in assemblies
less peaceful and more powerful — a man, all whose words remain
engraven where they fall, M. Royer CoUard, has resolved this
question ; he has resolved it, according to his conviction at least,
in his speech upon the proposed law relating to sacrilege. I find
in this discourse these two phrases : ' Human societies are bom,
live, and die upon the Earth — there are all their destinies ful-
filled ; but they do not comprise the whole of man. After his
engagements to society, there remains to him the noblest part of
himself, those high faculties by which he raises himself to God,
to a future fife, to unknown good in an invisible world. We,
individual and identical persons, true beings gifted with immor-
tahty, we have a different destiny from states'. I will add
nothing", M. Guizot goes on to say ; " I will not even undertake
to treat the question ; I am content with stating it. It meets us
at the end of the history of civilization: when the history of
civilization is exhausted, when there is nothing more to say of
actual fife, man invincibly demands of himself if all is exhausted,
if he is at the end of all. This is, then, the last problem, and
the highest of all those to which the history of civilization can
lead. It is sufficient for me to have indicated its place and its
greatness".^
From the tone of the above passage, as well as from the
general character of M. Guizot's mind and writings, we think it
clear that his own solution, if he had given it, would have co-
incided with his friend's ; but it is singular that he should have
considered the question as doubtful — most singular tliat he
should have treated it as one which he was not called upon by
his subject to determine. He says it is the last problem : is it not
the first and fundaniental one ? He says it meets us at the end of
the history of civilization : does it not confront us on the thre-
shold? If the two objects of civilization of which he speaks
stand in the relation of means to end, if one be principal and the
' Civilization in Europe, Lecture I.
Vieios preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 31
other subordinate, surely to expound, insist upon, and enforce
this relation, is absolutely necessary to tlie comprehension of his
subject. Both positions cannot be true, and according as we
take up one or the other of them, we necessarily alter our whole
perspective of things. We cannot help thinking that, notwith-
standing the incontestible ability of M. Guizot's book, this
original error taints it throughout with an unfixed and somewhat
sophistical character, and renders it, however interesting in many
respects as history, extremely unsatisfying as philosophy.
Our object is not civilization, which, as M. Guizot truly says,
it is much easier to understand in a loose popular sense, than to
define strictly ; but is the influence of wealth. To treat of wealth
as an agent in civilization vv^ould be a comparatively easy task,
for its topics lie abundantly at hand, but rather too vague for our
purpose ; we have to consider it as civilization itself must ulti-
mately be considered — namely, as an agent in human good. The
question, whether there can, in the nature of things, be a social
end superior to, or independent of the individual one, lies, there-
fore, at the threshold of our subject too, but surely it will not
cost us much difficulty to resolve it.
Let imagination, let the power of abstraction, be carried to
the uttermost, an obvious analysis brings us to the simple truth.
When we speak of the immense blessings and benefits which
the social bond confers upon man — how it educates, controls,
developes him, brings out liis highest qualities, guarantees his
possessions, helps to save him from himself, — we say what is all
just and true, but all in conformity with the proposition, — that
which makes man the end, society the means.
And when we speak of the life with which society is instinct,
we use metaphoric language to express an undoubted fact. Un-
questionably there exists in every community of men which is
better than a heap of uncementing sand, a spirit aptly hkened to
the vital principle in living beings, which pervades and informs
the whole body, gives it miity and coherence, is the source as
well as the guide of its energy, and, deprived of which, it decays
Hke organic matter after death. All this is true, but it is true
that in all this the life of which we speak is nothing more than
the common ideas, feelings, and beliefs diffused among the mem-
bers, and transmitted from generation to generation.
Again, we are referred to the high claims of society upon its
members, the emotions which it awakens, and the sacrifices
which it exacts. Certainly the advantages which man derives
from society are so great that, for its existence or its well-being,
he feels himself called to the higliest degree of labour and devo-
tion. And it is the representative and symbol of such a host of
32 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
memories and affections tliat man, wliose mental vision is too
limited to embrace tilings as they exist in detail, concentrates
tliem upon the abstract existence, upon liis country, or tribe, or
house, or order, for which he seems to make the sacrifices really
bestowed for his brethren present and to come.
But when all is said, it is in them^ in the individual, sentient,
conscious human beings, in their good or evil, happiness or
misery, or nowhere, that the end of the constitution of things is
to be sought. Let us take the world at any moment of time,
place it as many ages off as we please, and what will be found to
have existed till then upon the Earth but individuals? It is
surely puerile to have to insist that railways are but stone and
iron — a code of laws or an epic poem so much stained paper —
the noblest statue no more than the block in which it was im-
prisoned, apart from the human beings wliose minds they soothed
and elevated, or to whose comfort they ministered.
Why have we insisted at such length upon a principle which
may seem so plain? Because, in the very outset of our inquiries,
it is of the utmost importance to apprehend clearly and hold
resolutely the principle, that the good of which we are in search
must, in the last result, be traced to its home in the individual
heart ; because the opposite mode of viewing things, at all times
a temptation, is peculiarly so in our day. The conquests of ma-
terial civilization during the last century have been so immense,
so dazzling, and so splendid, that to accept them as the greatest
end to which man can attain, to rest in them, to bow down before
them, has become the dominant superstition of the hour. We
are not disparaging or prejudging these things, which have, no
doubt, their proper and appointed use; but we ask that men
should learn to look through them, to know that there is a bar at
which they must be tried, and, above all, to guard ourselves
against the fatal tendency of mind which an undue admiration
of them produces — a tendency to disregard and trample on in-
dividual rights and happiness in the view of some great collective
result.
Yet, having gone so far, does not a further question beset us :
What is the individual good of which we are in search ? This
topic, which occupied and divided the greatest tliinkers of anti-
quity, meets us here, and neither its scholastic form, nor the ex-
tent to which it has employed the human intellect, can exempt us
from referring at least to the primary truths upon the subject. It
is, moreover, in some degree forced upon us by the view of
human good which political economy takes, and properly takes,
within its own limits, — possessing, within those limits, a certain
relative tmth — absolutely and mischievously false outside them.
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 33
Everything, we know, wliich man naturally seeks, whatsoever
gratifies any appetite, either of sense or spirit, whatsoever con-
fers pleasure or removes pain, or tends to do either, is in itself
and considered in the abstract, undoubtedly a good : we have no
naturally tendency whose object is evil. To say otherwise would
be to assert for evil that absolute and substantive existence which
we abjure — would be to imply maleficence in our creation, and
thus to fall into the very darkest of speculative errors. All
things that are natural objects of human desire are in themselves
good, and if to increase human good in that wide and indis-
criminate sense be all that is claimed for increasing wealth, our
task is ended before it is well begun, for it enters into the very
definition of wealth, that it should consist of those things which
are directly or indirectly productive of pleasure or preventive of
pain. If we refuse to recognize any order or subordination among
the desires of man ; if we are to place body and spirit in equal
honour, to discard all thought of the harmony or even of the unity
of the human person, and see in man nothing but an assemblage
of powers and propensities, each having its own scope and its
proper gratification ; if we could enrol ourselves as disciples of a
philosophy so grovelling, we should have no more to say but to
bid mankind amass without stint where and how they could, the
means of enjoyment, material or mental, as inclination prompts.
Now, it is to be observed, that it is precisely in such indiscrimi-
nate sense alone that the political economist does or can regard
human good. His science speculates upon the desires and appe-
tites of men so far as they require the results of labour for their
gratification, and upon wealth in all its forms as the instrument
of such gratification ; but of those desires it has no measure, ex-
cept their number and intensity. As to their comparative worth,
it is absolutely bhnd and unintelligent. It would be as reason-
able to seek from geometry the results of chemical analysis, or
from arithmetic that it should weigh as well as count its units,
as to look in the laws of supply and demand for any guage
of the intrinsic worth of what is demanded and supplied. But
outside of the narrow field of the economist, the philosophy
which would place all our inchnations on a par would be an
epicureanism too gross to need to be confuted. What is said by
those who place the good of man and his highest good in the
fulfilment of his desires, is commonly this — that man has indeed
various powers and tendencies, but that they are of various
degrees of worth, the mental above the bodily, the emotional and
aBsthetical above the mental ; and that the progress of man to-
wards perfection consists precisely in his subjugating and subor-
dinating more and more the lower faculties to the higher. What-
ni. 3
34 Views 'preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
ever truth tliere may be in tliis, it is, as we conceive, very wide
of the whole truth. Even among the animals we mark the
existence of various capacities, higher and lower. Who would
not say, for example, that the yearning of the brute-mother over
her young, the delight in the master's caress, the ecstacy with
which the bird pours forth his heart in the season of song, are
gratifications higher in their kind, constitute a finer joy, than the
sensual pleasure with which they take their food. And con-
ceding for man an organization incomparably richer, grander,
and more composite than that of any of the animals ; yet, if we
look no further than the gratification of particular faculties,
however high, we cannot arrive at more than a diiFerence in
degree between man and the inferior creatures, a difference
not greater, perhaps, than exists between members of the inferior
creation themselves. The specific and peculiar distinction of
man must be looked for in something very different. It consists
in this, in the stamp of infinity, which marks the two master
faculties of his nature, his intelligence and his will, that he is
endowed with an intellect whose scope ^d end is infinite truth,
and a will whose scope and end is infinite good.
When we say that the object of the intelligence is infinite
truth, we do not mean of course that it is given to the under-
standing of any creatm-e to embrace at once all truth, but we
mean this — that man has been constituted the intelligent spectator
of the infinitely wise order which the Creator has established in
the universe, with capacity, ever more and more to enter into and
apprehend it, and to follow His own words in pronouncing it to
be good.
The intelHgence of the lower animals, so far as we can pro-
nounce upon such a subject, begins and ends in the apprehension
of the individual objects present to the sense. Of the relation of
things to one another, and of the part and office which each ful-
fils in the great scheme, it would be absurd to affirm that they
have any conception. That is proper to man. The faculty of
knowing each particular star not in the sensation of light alone,
nor even in the feehng of beauty alone, but in the perception
of its function as the minister of such light and beauty, and as
portion of a universe of Hke ministers, is his. Thus the specific
characteristic of the human intelHgence is the knowledge of
order ; of all knowledge the highest, for it rises to embrace the
design of the Maker in the formation of all that has been made.
But, to be the inteUigent spectator of the order around him and
within him, is but the smaller portion of the dignity conferred
upon man. He has been called to an eminence incomparably
higher — to that of being the voluntary cooperator, the fellow-
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 35
workman of his Maker in the sustainment of the order so estab-
lished. This is the great gift of freedom of the will — the power
bestowed upon man of being in his measure an original principle
of action, and of acquiring the merit of using that power in con*
formitj with the knowledge of good imparted to the intelligence.
And as every creature finds its felicity only in following the
law of its nature, so is it with man. In one sense, happiness is
his being s end and aim, in the sense in which it is coincident
with and consequent upon virtuous action, and it is, at all events,
a vain philosophy which forbids him to crave after it. He can-
not help forming to himself an ideal of satisfaction and enjoyment
in which his whole nature may find repose. Surrounded, then,
and solicited as he is by a multitude of objects having power to
gratify his varying desires, it would be no wonder that he should
seek in them, one after the other, the means of appeasing this
great hunger, if it were not that his intelligence led him to the
comprehension of infinite good, and pointed out to him that his
will, liis action, and endeavour are to be directed to all things
whatsoever in proportion as they lead to that. And it is in this
direction of the will, this subordination of the faculties, this free
cooperation with infinite wisdom, and in this alone, that the sense
of complete satisfaction, the repose of the whole nature, the hap-
piness, our being's end and aim, is to be looked for.
The Earthly perfection of the human being consists then in
this — that with the utmost possible light of the intelligence to
indicate to him his duties, he should follow that light with the
utmost devotion of the will.
In their apprehension and enforcement of this great truth —
the truth that man's highest good is at all times an internal one,
at all times strictly within his own power, and consisting in the
right direction of the will, lies the claim of the great Stoic sect
to the admiration of mankind. It was this which they meant to
express by such phrases as " living according to nature", " coope-
rating with the universe", and similar sentences common in their
writings. These sayings yield indeed an easy handle to ridi-
cule — a still easier one is afforded by their inconsistency in prac-
tice, their failure to realise what they professed. Such failure
we can now see to have been inevitable, for whatever their in-
sight as to ends, they were, in respect to means and possibilities,
entirely blind. Even the great truth that man's highest good is
at all times strictly within his own power, was, as they held and
taught it, an error, for it is true only in this sense, that we
have at all times the power to ask for that strength in well-
doing which is not in ourselves. That man must stoop to con-
quer, was the grand secret hidden from the Stoic. They held up
3 B
36 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy,
an ideal of transcendant virtue to wliicli they bid men aspire,
while to do so was but to point out tlie inaccessible mountain
height as the resting-place for the feeble heart and broken wing.
In the lecture-room, indeed, or the closet, the disciple of the
Stoic might, through that delusion which pursues man to his
grave, persuade himself that it was easy to achieve what he had
learned to admire ; but when, in the world of action and tempta-
tion, all this splendid theory broke down, it was too tempting a
theme for the scoffer, who would see nothing in this Stoic ideal
but a phantom and a cheat. Still we cannot refuse its just
honour to that noble school, which, in the old world, raised the
banner of labour and sacrifice against eifeminacy and sensuality ;
nor will we be found to subscribe to the mean judgment which
could dehberately exalt the champions and providers of material
comfort above the noble, even if ineffectual, aspirations after wis-
dom and virtue.
There are, however, two great distinctions between the Stoic
view and ours, which we advert to here, because they serve to
bring out what we have finally to say upon this subject. Man,
we know, possesses not only the liigh faculties of which we
spoke, but he has also the inferior sensitive nature, which he
shares in common with the animals, but in him more subtle,
deUcate, and complex. And he grows up with an inner world
of sympathies and affections, all capable of a gratification or a
wound- Now, that this physical sensitive nature could be in
any way the seat of good or evil, is what the Stoic absolutely
denied. The wise man possessed liis soul self-centred, complete,
immovable; and outside of wisdom there was no good. Ex-
ternal things were matters of no regard whatever. Pleasure or
pain, wealth or poverty, sickness or health, were simply tilings
indifferent. We judge far otherwise. We concede, indeed, and
assert for moral good, not merely the supremacy over all other
good, but a supremacy of such a kind as to render the one abso-
lutely incommensurable with the other. The right exertion of
the will of any human being, in however shglit a degree, pos-
sesses a value against which the sum of all actual and possible
enjoyment is not to be weighed. But, to go further and deny
that external good or evil exists at all, must be to use these terms
very differently from their natural human meaning. To say that
ease of body and mind, or the gratification of the legitimate
affections, is not good for man, — that anguish and bereavement
are not evil, — is to do violence to our deepest instincts. Out-
ward evils may be, indeed, and should be, the occasion and
subject matter of the highest good; it is for that end they have
been ordained. The mind may become '* sovereign o'er trans-
Views preliminary/ to the study of Political Economy. 37
muted ill" ; but surely in that very saying tlie point is conceded,
— that must have been evil beforehand which is thus susceptible
of being transformed to good. And, in a world like ours, made
up of infinite contrivance, all directed to the well-being of sen-
tient creatures, it is surely a needless task to attempt to prove
that the happiness of the beings whom He has made is portion of
the design of the Creator. To us. Christians, at least, this ques-
tion admits of no controversy : it is proved by the very precept
of charity, which bids us minister, not merely to the internal, but
to the outward and bodily good of our fellow-creatures.
But there is a second question of more importance still. Not
only did the Stoic deny that external things could form of
themselves an end, — as means or influences they were equally
worthless. His ideal would have been at once destroyed by the
supposition that it could be dependent on or affected by anything
outside the mind itself. That heroic temper to which they
aspired was not to be the creature or slave of circumstances, but
lord of itself and them. Now, here also there is a certain con-
formity with Christian teaching. We also are taught that,
to the rightly-directed heart and will, the actual state of out-
ward circumstances, in which man may for the time be placed,
is infalKbly the best : that is, supposing the will to be entirely
right, — an enormous postulate. But we are speculating, not
for the perfect, but for men as they exist — the pliant servants
of desire and fear. We treat of beings, who are moulded and
fashioned by outward influences to a degree hard to estimate, in
whom the will, though it never wholly loses its essential free-
dom and regal attributes, is yet so broken and enfeebled that it
is perhaps true, upon the whole, to say of all the generations of
men, that they are least evil where they have least temptation.
Therefore it is that the outward circumstances which surround
men, so far from being to us, as to the Stoic, things of no im-
portance, are of the deepest interest. Social condition, laws,
customs, prejudices, even feelings which are susceptible of ridi-
cule, such as family or national pride, if they can be engaged on
the side of good ; whatsoever, in its degree helps to form a bul-
wark between the unprotected will of man and the coarse allm^e-
ments which appeal to his passions, are to be accepted and
rejoiced in. And amongst the external facts thus tending to
influence and control mankind, surely their condition in regard
to wealth is none of the least important.
Upon this subject we can 'give at present no more than a rapid
glance at the conclusions to which our inquiries may lead us.
We may, perhaps, conclude, that as the progress of nations in
wealth is clearly a natural law, it was intended to contribute to
38 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
tlieir good; but we will guard ourselves against the fatalism
which proclaims that it has such tendency certainly and of
necessity. On the contrary, our judgment will be likely to be,
that it is impossible to separate the question, how far riches are
a real benefit to a nation, from the consideration of how they are
acquired, and to what uses destined. In the infancy and ado-
lescence of society, growth in wealth is, generally speaking, an
almost unmixed benefit. It is the offspring and symbol of many
virtues — of patient labour, of providence and seff-denial, of all
that is opposed to that torpor and recklessness which Virgil
designates as the characteristics of barbarism.
" Nee eomponere opes norant, nee parcere parto".
And the same quahties which thus enabled men to grow in
wealth, also fitted them to use it. At such a period, the moral
elements which bind society together, and without which it could
not grow at all, are, generally speaking, in vigorous Hfe. At such
a time the gradual accretion of wealth is one of the appointed
means of the development of human intelligence, and of its re-
demption from that slavery to the present hour which the extreme
of penury enforces. It is then a beneficent influence in the growth
of the arts which adorn Kfe, and which, in their proper use and
sphere, are designed to act, to some degree, as a charm against
the coarser fascinations of sense. And now, if we are asked at
what period in a nation's life the increase of riches ceases to be
a good, and becomes an evil, we answer, it does not necessarily
do so at any period. If we consider how far the great masses of
men in any country, at any era, have been from having even
their material, not to speak of their intellectual and moral wants,
fully supphed, we will infer that no time has been seen on Earth
in which, for wealth justly and honourably won, there may not
be a laudable and beneficent use. But a period does come in the
Ufe of nations, when wealth becomes, certainly not a necessary
evil, but an enormous temptation to evil. "^Tien the austere
habits of an earlier time are forgotten — when wealth becomes,
not the natm-al result of labour springing from duty, but an
object passionately pursued as the means of personal enjoyment —
then, in its acquisition and its use, it is the representative of cor-
ruption and the harbinger of decay. And why? Because its
ofiice has been perverted, and instead of being, as it was
appointed to be, an agent in the emancipation of the human
intelhgence from the hard necessities of the body, it tends to
make the soul the body's sbve. So was it in old Persia, so in
the empire of Rome. To the latter, indeed, the world has seen
nothing comparable, either in the prodigious extent of its opu-
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 39
lence, or the scandalous oppression and rapacity witli which it
was amassed, or the purposes of nameless and transcending luxury
to which it was devoted ; the evil acquisition and the evil use
being but the counterparts of one another. It was considerations
such as these which inspired many thinkers with the belief that
human society is formed to run for ever in a fatal circle, and that
so surely as it is born and grows by means of sacrifice and virtue,
so surely it is fated to perish at last by luxury and selfishness.
This is the thought expressed in these despairing fines —
" There is the moral of all human tales,
'T is the same sad rehearsal of the past :
First freedom, and then glory. When that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption — barbarism at last ;
And history with all her volumes vast
Hath but one page — "
And yet we profess ourselves entire disbelievers in this fatal
theory, as much as in the opposite theory of fatalism, which holds
that society is advancing certainly and necessarily upon a career
of unbounded progress.
Our modern society has lasted too short a time, — scarcely a
thousand years, — to enable us to presage its career or end ; but
we believe that the great moral antiseptic power which Chris-
tianity brought into the world will preserve the new civilization
from perishing ignominiously like the old. These ideas, which
it may be interesting to consider hereafter in detail, we now
only glance at, and we close with the theme which we have
endeavoured to pursue throughout, namely, that if society is
thus to be preserved, it will be through no great collective
achievement, but tlu-ough an agency acting on that from which
all good must spring, and to which all good should tend — the
individual heart.
II.
There are many to whom inquiries such as we are pursuing,
inquiries as to the final causes of the world and society, seem
to belong to the class of idle because unfathomable questions.
They accept life and its phenomena as materials for science indeed
to analyze, and for art to use and fashion according to its lights,
as the working field of man, where his hand is to labour earnestly
in whatsoever it finds to do, but of which the beginning and the
end, the scheme and scope, are impenetrably dark. And yet
surely the research after final causes is the most irrepressible
instinct of our rational nature, which seeks not alone the know-
ledge of sequences or operative causes, but of a purpose and
design, controlling all things, and consonant with our idea of in-
40 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
finite wisdom, justice, and benevolence. It is the province of
philosophy to answer us when we ask not "how?" but " why?"
and to ascend ever from minor ajid subordinate solutions to that
from which all others are derived, to that "s^u6 jinem sive
extremum sive ultimum definimus^ id quo omnia referrentur
neque id ipsum usquam referretur"". It is easy to sneer at the
word " Theodicea", but it is the goal of all true philosophy.
Setting out from the consideration of the relation of wealth to
the good of society, we found ourselves obliged to consider the
end for which society was ordained. We saw that end to be the
noblest and highest conceivable, nothing less in its perfection than
this, that it might in the best and truest way aid man — the indi-
vidual — in attaining his perfection : the complete cooperation of
his free will with the whole scheme and law of the universe, a
cooperation based upon the widest possible knowledge of that
law. This is the ideal, the possibility latent in every human
creature, the " hen delV intellettd'^ — the good of the rational soul,
for the better attaining of which men were made social beings, and
to assist him to that end has been ordained all the visible social
fabric which we see around us — empires and laws, kings and
pontiff's.
But now we have to descend from the contemplation of this
magnificent ideal, and simply opening our eyes, to look upon
mankind as they exist in reality and fact, and then endeavour, if
we can, to point to some principle that will resolve an enigma so
tremendous.
We suppose there are few of us who, when our early thoughts
were first turned to consider social topics, were not filled with a
strange despair in contemplating the phenomenon which the
world presents in the mere matter of the external condition of
mankind. Apart from minute statistics, out of place here, where
our view is necessarily broad and general, it is a computation
perhaps rather under than over the truth, to say that five- sixths
of the population of the world belong to what are termed the
labouring classes — to that class whose occupation is an almost
unremitting bodily labour — whose subsistence is what we call
the necessaries of life — whose intelligence is practically limited
to the little sphere of their hamlet or township. Such, with ex-
ceptions comparatively few, are mankind ; such is the average
naan. How different from the being upon whose mighty capa-
bihties and glorious earthly destinies the worshippers of huma-
nity dehght to dwell ! They form their ideal of man, the hero
and the sage ; but again we say, let us not shrink from the facts.
Observe the city populations when some great occasion has
called them abroad, or see the peasants in the fields, and behold
B Vieios preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 41
in the heavy features, where monotony of labour has produced a
monotony of dull expression, pervading and transcending all
varieties of race and climate, the representatives of the immense
majority of our kind. Gradations exist, of course, between
country and country, between era and era; but we speak of
things in the mass — we speak of a phenomenon, true upon the
whole, now as it was three thousand years ago — true of ancient
Greece or Assyria as of modern England or China.
To a thinker of the ancient world this phenomenon would, we
can well imagine, have presented little difficulty ; he would have
simply answered : This earth is made for the few ; mundus nas-
citur paucis; it is the patrimony of the rich, the learned, and the
wise. The poor, the slaves, the great mass of the community,
are but the means to that end — the unsightly, if essential, foun-
dation of the great edifice — the coarse and earthborn roots,
whose office and end it is to produce and sustain the bright
consummate flower of heroism and wisdom.
Nay, further, we will say that this idea and persuasion is one
which never altogether dies in the hearts of the rich — the idea and
persuasion, namely, that there is some intrinsic and essential dif-
ference between them and the poor — that their pursuits and plea-
sures, by reason of being theirs, form an end and object in the
constitution of things, to which the poor were designed to minister.
This feeling, we say, is never altogether eradicated ; it is the
eternal temptation of the rich, as envy and discontent are the
eternal temptation of the poor. And further we must confess we
do not know of any answer which mere reasoning can give to it.
The inequalities in the conditions of men, in all outward relations,
in all the forms of power and enjoyment, are so much tJie striking
phenomenon of this world, that we do not know how it could
be shown that it is not an essential and intrinsic superiority
given to one set of beings above another.
To combat that idea, we must, it is plain, go into another
sphere, and draw from other sources. So immense is the change
which Christian ideas have wrought in us, that that which
would appear outside the circle of Christianity to be the expres-
sion of a simple fact, seems to us, and justly, an intolerable pre-
sumption, namely, to assert that any one human being was created
merely for the sake of another, or that the honour or enjoyment
of the highest upon Earth entered as an end into the design of
the Creator, more than that of the poorest slave.
In seeking, then, to explain and justify the physical condition
of the masses of mankind, we do not feel called upon to discuss
the hypothesis that they are the appointed and predestined
servants of a favoured few.
42 Vieivs preliminary to the study of Political Economy,
It may indeed be said, tliat there is in all sucli investigations
an essential absurdity, and that we can do nothing more than
accept the ordinances of nature as tliey are. It is capable of
almost physical demonstration, that, so far as the -world's products
have hitherto existed in proportion to its population, the vast
majority of men, in order to live at all, must be condemned to a
life of labour and privation. Why not rest in the necessities of
things? In some average condition or other men must exist.
What right have we to say that that average shall be higher or
lower, or that one condition is unsuitable rather than another?
As the dm^ation of men's lives is measured by decades, not
centuries — as their average stature is under six feet, not over
sixty, and we can see that all these things are in harmony with
nature and with one another, but cannot see any reason why
things should be made upon one scale rather than another ; so it
may be . said, bodily labour and a restriction of the materials of
enjoyment to the necessaries of life, is the condition in which
man is placed. If we can see no reason why it should be so
rather than otherwise, we can also see no reason why it should
be otherwise rather than so. It is simply to be accepted and
acted upon.
Such is in substance the argument that nms through Pope's
Essay on Man.
" Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find
Why formed so weak, so httle, and so blind ;
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,
Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less".
Such reasoning is, no doubt, carried throughout the poem to
lengths wholly unjustifiable ; yet, if restricted merely to the ques-
tion of man's situation in relation to external things, it would
perhaps admit of no answer, if it were not that man has within
him a deep instinct that his position is somehow out of harmony
with his original nature. It is the irrepressible sense which
he has of his intrinsic greatness and dignity which makes him
conscious of a touch or note of discord in the actual ordinances
of things. That to activity of some kind man was created is
manifest, for it is the function of the will, in which the very
crown of human nature resides ; but that, gifted as he is with
higher and lower organs, with those which ally him with the
spirits, and those which he possesses in common with the brutes,
he should be so placed that his intellectual faculties should, in the
necessities of things, be all his life cramped and imdeveloped,
and that his lower functions should almost solely be exercised —
th^ is the problem which weighs upon us.
We are not unaware that it has become rather a fashion of
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 43
late years to celebrate the greatness and intrinsic dignity of
labour. Now, let us dwell as much as we please upon the results
of laboiu* — its necessity, its salutary uses ; but, to speak of a life
spent in tlae weary exertion of the muscles, as forming of itself a
glorious and exalted destiny, is poetry, and modern poetry, not
fact. Ask the working man himself after his day of toil — ask
all true poets and thinkers, who have described the actual facts
of life, and they paint to you labour as it is — wearisome — not
pleasant, but grievous; endured, '•'• spe Jinis'\ in the hope of the
repose to come.
What then are we to say? — that it is an expiation. Un-
doubtedly it is ; but it is more — it has a value evidenced to us,
not alone by faith, but by our own consciousness, by all our
observation of the world and all our knowledge of its history.
Labour is a discipline — the harsh medicine for a deep disease.
Moral evil, as we have seen, is not anything existing in the
nature of things, but is merely the determination of the free will
of responsible beings to the lower good of sense rather than to
the higher good of the intelligence. How it has come to pass
that the will of man, whose object is the supreme good, should,
in its actual condition, tend to rest in subordinate creatures as
the supreme end of its being, faith alone explains ; but the fact is
as plain and undeniable as the existence of the globe itself.
Now, we say, this being so, — discarding all idle flattery of
ourselves or our race — taking men as all experience, as the
voice of our own hearts tells us that they are, — let us conceive
for a moment what they would be if they were in the mass sup-
plied, without effort and without stint, with the means of in-
dulging each propensity as it arose. The original greatness of
man is the measure of his capacity for evil. What spectacle can
we candidly conceive the world would present, if men, with a
will bent to evil, had unlimited leisure to conceive and means
to execute it? Milton, speaking of the corruption of the world
before the flood, says that the Earth bore " more than enough,
that temperance might be tried". And such has been the
invariable experience of mankind ever since, that scarcely an
example can be found of any body of men having the un-
constrained command of the passive drugs of this world, that
they did not abuse them.
In mercy, therefore, and as a benefit still more than as a chas-
tisement, was that command denied to mankind in the mass.
Next to freely doing right, the best thing is to do right by com-
pulsion ; and the ordinance which made man a serf of the glebe,
and forced him, in order to live at all, to live by the labour of
his body and the sweat of his face, not only rendered duty a
44 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
necessity, but rendered tlie free acceptance of that duty the
means of the only happiness possible for him. It is the first
condition of his upward progress. It remained for long centu-
ries almost the only countervailing force to the disorders which
overspread the world. We remember the description in Virgil
of the Roman matron lising by night to her labours, kindhng
the expiring embers, and calling her handmaids to their labours,
that she might preserve an honourable name, and bring up her
dear children :
-quum femina primum,
Cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva
Impositum, cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignes,
Noctem addens open ; famulasque ad lumina longo
Exercet penso, castum ut servare cubile
Conjugis, et possit parvos educere natos".
How many virtues are here pourtrayed ! — ^what patience and
self-denial in the act ! what excellence in the motive ! — virtues in
some shape sure of their reward. Thus, then, the life of toil to
which man has been condemned, is not indeed his original or
his best state, but it is his best relatively to his actual moral con-
dition ; and when we say that this condition of the human race
is an unhappy one, we say so with great truth indeed in the
sight of man's origin and capabilities, but we must add that it
contains the germ of the only happiness possible for him.
If considerations such as these serve to explain and justify to
us the condition of the great mass of mankind, we must not
forget that there is a minority very differently circumstanced.
Harsh as the terms may be which the Earth exacts as the condi-
tions of her supply, she is not so niggard as merely to return to
the labours of tillage the bare food of those who till. Over and
above what is sufficient for the food of the husbandman, she
yields, in the first place, sufficient to sustain another class of
bodily labourers, — those, namely, who work with their hands in
providing clothing and the means of habitation for the agricultu-
rists and themselves. But, besides all this, she yields, in the
majority of her soils, a large surplus, which, in the actual
arrangements of society, becomes at the disposal of a minority
rising in " columnar diminution" above the common level, and,
as^ they rise, possessing ampler means of gratification, together
with more abundant leisiu-e and larger scope for the development
of all their faculties. What then shall we say as to these, the
select classes, and the end of their existence ? Are we with the
vulgar to rank them as the objects of peculiar favour; or, again,
are we bound, in accordance with our own principles, to say, on
the contrary, that they are the especial objects of disfavour, set
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
45
in the occasions, and endowed with the means of evil, from
which necessity has restrained their fellows ? In a measure we
must say both these things. The more elevated classes are
called to a post of greater danger, of greater responsibility and
self-command. Their office is to be the mental workmen of the
world.
There is an observation made long ago by an Italian writer,
and often repeated since, which is worthy of our notice here. It
is this — that the visible and external labours of man, wonderful
as they seem and are — all that we dignify with the name of
human creations — consist in this only, the separating or uniting
of particles of matter. We can, by the action of our muscles, pro-
duce motion, and we can do literally nothing else. Whether
we drop a seed into the earth, or fling a shuttle across the
tlueads of the woof, or lay colours upon canvas, or hew marble
from the quarry, or collect it in the palace, the actual thing we do
is no more than the carrying certain particles of matter from one
place and depositing them in another. The result is wholly
independent of us ; it flows directly from the powers of nature —
that is to say, from the hand of God working through the laws
which He has bestowed upon His creatures. And if these works
of man were performed in obedience to mere instinct, they could
assert for him no higher dignity than that of the ant or beaver.
But beneath all man's visible operations lies his invisible work,
the action of the intelligence, which originates, guides, deter-
mines all liis outward labours. This is the spirit diflused through
the globe, of which all that is done by man is but the imperfect
expression.
Thus, then, the primary division of labour is into bodily and
mental, and it brings with it the division of bodily and mental
labourers. It is true that there is scarcely any bodily labour which
does not involve some exertion of the intelligence, as, on the
other hand (pure contemplation apart), the intellectual workman
is rarely without some bodily exertion, however slight. But, on
the whole, the functions are distinct ; and, on the large scale, their
union in the same persons would be simply impossible. For, in
addition to the prolonged education and ample leisure required
for the cultivation and use of the intellect, it is true that con-
tinued and monotonous bodily exertion creates of itself both a
distaste and an unfitness for mental labour. It is a common
experience that mind and body cannot be both worked in a high
degree at the same time.^
^This is very well expressed in a late work of fiction of Mr, Hawthorne's,
which takes for its basis one of the attempts which have been made in America
46 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy
All that is done in the world is wrought by the hands of men,
but the active hand obeys the thinking head. In planning and
directing labour, and in superintending the distribution of its
produce, and in doing this in all senses, lies the function of the
minority. That those who think must govern those who toil,
is a constitutional law deeper than all codes, and defying all
revolutions to alter. Every society must be governed by this
" natural aristocracy".''
to realize some of the socialist theories. The conception was, that all the mem-
bers taking part in the Utopia should be bodily as well as intellectual labourers.
Thought and poetry, and the refining influences of Uterature, were to go hand
in hand with field-work or handicraft. The result, however, was far from
answering their anticipations. * * * " The clods of earth", says the writer,
" which we turned over and over, were never ethereahzed into thought. Our
thoughts, on the contrary, were fast becoming cloddish ; our labour symbolized
nothing, and left us mentally sluggish in the dusk of the evening. Intellectual
activity is incompatible with any large amount of bodily exercise. The yeoman
and scholar — the yeoman and man of finest moral cultivation — though not the
man of sturdiest sense and integrity, are two distinct individuals, and can never
be welded into one substance".
^ " A true natiu-al aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or separa-
ble from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body rightly con-
stituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate presumptions, wliich, taken as
generalities, must be admitted for actual truths. To be bred in a place of
estimation; to see nothing low and sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to
resi)ect one's self; to be habituated to the censorial inspection of the pubhc eye;
to look early to public opinion ; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be en-
abled to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified com-
binations of men and affairs in a large society ; to have leisure to read, to reflect,
to converse ; to be enabled to draw the court and attention of the wise and
learned wherever they are to be found;— to be habituated in armies to com-
mand and to obey ; to be taught to despise danger in the pursuit of honour and
duty ; to be formed to the greatest degree of vigilance, foresight, and cir-
cumspection, in a state of things in which no fault is committed with impunity,
and the slightest mistakes draw on the most ruinous consequences— to be led to
a guarded and regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an in-
structor of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a
reconciler between God and man — to be employed as an administrator of law
and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to mankind — to be
a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenious art — to be amongst rich
traders, who from their success are presumed to have sharp and vigorous
understandings, and to possess the virtues of dihgence, order, constancy, and
regularity, and to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice
—these are the circumstances of men, that form what I should call a natural
aristocracy, without which there is no nation.
" The state of civil society, which necessarily generates this aristocracy, is a
state of nature ; and much more truly so than a savage and mcohereut mode of
life. For man is by nature reasonable ; and he is never perfectly in his natural
state, but when he is placed where reason may be best cultivated, and most pre-
dominates. Art is mail's nature. We are as much, at least, in a state of nature
in formed manhood, as in immature and helpless infancy. Men, qualified in the
manner I have just described, form in nature, as she operates in the common
modification of society, the leading, guiding, and governing part. It is the soul
to the body, without which the man does not exist. To give therefore no more
importance, in the social order, to such descriptions of men, than that of so
many units, is a horrible usurpation".— jBmtAc.
Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy. 47
This being so, we perceive at once the necessity for the exist-
iice of a class in the community exempt from the ordinary lot of
physical toil. To discuss the nature and origin of property in
relation to justice and natural law, does not enter into our present
purpose, which deals with ends and utilities ; but it is clear that
it is by means of the institution of property that the continuance
of such a class is secured.
But here it may be objected — and this is one of the points
most earnestly urged by M. Proudhon — it is not so much with
the hif^her work as with the inordinate wages of the superior
class that we quarrel. Granting that you are to have persons
devoted to mental occupations, are these teachers and com-
manders of mankind therefore entitled to richer fare and costlier
raiment than their fellows ? If their occupation be of a higher
grade, why not let it be its own reward ? Why should the fact
of being set apart for an immaterial work be the reason for larger
material enjoyment? Upon this subject we may make two
observations : —
First, — If the minority be, as they are, the appointed governors
and rulers of the masses, then, physically and numerically weak
as they are, the preservation of their position absolutely depends
upon the respect paid to them by those whom they rule. Now,
of course it would be an absurd as well as low estimate of human
nature to say that the respect paid by the majority to the minority
depends entirely upon the outward show made by the latter.
No one overlooks the influences of loyalty, of religion, of deference
for personal character; but still it must be insisted that external
advantages form an element, and a considerable one, in such
submission. How long could the governing classes hope to pre-
serve control over the multitude, if, in all matters of appearance,
no difference existed between them ? No doubt in the rare cases,
where personal qualifications are of an eminently high and
striking kind, this observation may have little weight. A saint
may be all the more honoured in his rags. A consummate
general, known by his soldiers to be such, may even gain
increased respect by sharing their rations and drilling them in
his shirt sleeves. But in the mediocrity, both of virtue and
talent, which men in the average present, all government, all
subordination, would be practically impossible, and the thinking
or governing class trampled down with contempt, if they had no
means of inspiring respect but an appeal to their intrinsic supe-
riority.
Secondly, — These governing classes are not, or at least ought
not to be, and cannot long continue to be, in the nature of a
caste. On the contrary, their ranks must be, and in fact are,
48 Views preliminary to the study of Political Economy.
perpetually filled up and recruited from the great body of the
community. Now, to gain recruits, you must allure them. If,
therefore, "it be essential that there should be motives sufficient
to induce certain individuals amongst the labouring class to make
that amount of exertion which would enable them or enable their
children to step from the ranks of the bodily into the ranks of the
mental labourers, it is equally essential, that these motives should
be of that plain, strong, and effective character which would act
upon man in his actual constitution. And such an incentive
is found in the superior physical condition which is thus to be
attained.
No one, we trust, will imagine, that these observations are in
the nature of arguments in favour of retaining any particular
social arrangement ; on the contrary, our position is, that these
social laws are fundamental and unalterable, fixed not by men,
but by a power above them ; and the considerations we have been
developing are to the end, that we may not only accept them as
inevitable, but acquiesce in them as just. Upon this ground then
do we stand. To clear away from before our eyes those sha-
dowy, but in their tendency very mischievous speculations, which
tempt us to make of man's social organization something greater
than man himself, is the first requisite to the formation of a right
judgment upon what does or does not contribute to human good
And next to that, is the clear apprehension of what that good is,
namely, in the highest sense the perception of truth by the
intelligence, and the pursuit of it by the will. And further,
that the actual constitution of human society, of whatever im-
provements in detail it may be susceptible, or whatever gradual
amelioration may be hoped for, is upon the whole wisely and
justly framed to secure that end.
There is a considerable body of speculators, to whom all
these views of ours seem utterly false and hateful. These
thinkers regard human society, in all its parts, as being the work
of man alone, as made by him, and therefore to be re-made by
him. And further, they assail the actual constitution of society,
as fundamentally unjust and oppressive, and demand that it should
be taken to pieces and constructed anew upon a fairer basis.
This is the school of the socialists, to some of whose writings we
shall next direct our attention.
Celtic Studies. 49
Art. hi. — Celtic Studies. By Hermann Ebel. Translated
from the German ; icith an Introduction on the JVature, For-
mation, and Classification of Stems, with examples from the
Greek, Latin, and Gothic. By William K. Sullivan.
[Comparative Philology, although but a creation of the present century, has
had, like all branches of human knowledge, its period of conjecture and em-
piricism. The collection of facts is a work of time and labour ; until there is
an abundance of facts, there can be no hypotheses founded on strict inductive
reasoning to account for phenomena, and loose conjectures and fanciful specu-
lations occupy their place. But no hypothesis, however correctly established, can
be wholly true ; the proportion of error in it will, among other things, depend on
the state of development of the science, and on the greater or lesser generality of
the hypotliesis itself— that is, on the greater or lesser number of phenomena
embraced by it. To object, then, to a science because its hypotheses are
rapidly changed, or because in its infancy an illegitimate use may have been
made of its methods, is to mistake the scaffolding by means of which an edifice is
erected for the permanent structure itself. If a little more attention were bestowed
upon the historical development of different branches of science, this mistake
would not be so frequently made. We should then learn what a large amount of
scaffolding and useless materials are cast aside in the course of a single cen-
tury's growth — scaffolding and materials which may perhaps have formed
the sole subject of that century's intellectual strife.
Now the instrument of research, so to say, in scientific philology is the
system of letter-changes, the true laws of which are only very gradually
being established upon a correct basis. As in every other science, this in-
strument has not always been employed properly, nay, its use has led occa-
sionally to results quite as ludicrous as any ever obtained by the old method
of guessing at the relations of languages from the accidental resemblance
which w(3rds may offer when placed at random in parallel columns. Surely
it would be more than unreasonable to condemn an instrument because
it had occasionally been unskilfully used. In the hands of Bopp, and of his
school, this instrument, judiciously used, has raised Comparative Philology to
the rank of a true inductive science. One of its greatest triumphs has un-
doubtedly been the Grammatica Celtica of Zeuss, of which an interesting
account has been published by the distinguished Irish scholar. Dr. O'Donovan,
from whom we may soon expect a translation of the whole work. Before
the publication of this great work, a monument at once of its author's genius
and labour, several of tlie most distinguished Continental scholars, among
whom may be specially mentioned, Pictet, Bopp, and Diefenbach, had written
valuable works on Celtic Philology. But with the appearance of Zeuss' work,
a new era may be said to have commenced for Celtic Philology. The Classic lan-
guages, Sanskrit, and Gothic, with the derivatives of the latter, the large family
of Germanic languages, upon the analysis of which the laws of the science were
built, were so gleaned by bands of ardent scholars, that a fresh field in Indo-
European Philology was to them what a new gold field would be to gold diggers.
Of the many who have begun to cultivate this Celtic field, there is one
who bids fair to rival Zeuss himself In the remarkable •' Celtic studies " of
Hermann Ebel, published in the Beitr'dge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung
auj dem Gebiete der Arischen, Celtischen und Slaivischen Sprachen, hrsg. von
A. Kuhn und A. Schleicher, we have one of the best examples of strict inductive
Philology which has ever emanated from the Boppian School. Irish scholars,
with very few exceptions, have not hitherto done anything in Comparative Philo-
logy. This is by no means to be regretted in the case of those who have heretofore
devoted themselves to the study of the ancient language, literature, and historical
monuments of Ireland, because, had the object of their labours been the mere
abstract study of the Irish language, we should perhaps not have obtained the
III. 4
50 Celtic Studies.
great results in a national point of view which those labours have yielded. There
is, perhaps, no country in Europe, in which, in the same space of time and under
a similar amount of difficulty, so much has been done, in about twenty-five or
thirty years, for the collection, preservation, and publication of the records of
its ancient history, than in Ireland, So also it would be difficult to rival, in
patient and conscientious work and solid learning, such men as Petrie, Curry,
O'Donovan, Todd, Graves, and Keeves, — to speak only of those who have occu-
pied themselves with the earlier periods of Irish History and Archaeology. I
believe that the period has now, however, arrived, when the cultivation of Com-
parative Philology would confer important advantages upon Irish Literature, and
very greatly faciUtate the study of the ancient MSS. With the double object of
placing the investigations of Ebel within the reach of such Irish scholars as may
not be acquainted with the German original, and of holding out an inducement to
some of our own young scholars to enter, and earn for themselves a name, in a
field of study which is so peculiarly their own, and for the cultivation of which
they possess so many advantages, I have ventured to make a translation of
the cliief paper, namely, that " On Declension in Irish", and of three of the
shorter ones, which are necessary supplements to that paper.
On completing the translation, I found, however, that without some explana-
tion of the peculiar method of grammatical analysis followed by German phi-^
lologists, it would be wholly unintelligible except to a very few persons. I thus
ran the risk of missing my main object, namely, of stimulating some young
Irish scholars, who may chance to meet with these pages, to study the method of
the Boppian School. Under these circumstances I had no alternative but to
prepare an explanatory introduction, — to venture in fact upon the hazardous
imdertaking of becoming, without any special qualifications, the interpreter of
the German School of Philology. For any shortcomings in this introduction, I
can only then plead its object and the circumstances under which it was written.
At first I proposed to explain the difference between Boots and Stems, — the
Formation of the Stems and their Classification, — the difference between Stem-
formation and Derivation, — and lastly, the primitive forms of the Case End-
ings in the several Indo-European languages. The length to which the first part
ran, that which I deemed the part most requiring explanation, prevented me
from adding anything upon the case endings.
As the Classic languages, the Sanskrit, and the Gothic, were the languages
which served as the foundation of the science, I determined to take my examples
from such of those languages as were available to me, namely, Greek, Latin, and
Gothic.
It feeras almost imnecessary to add that such an Introduction, from its nature
and object, could only be a mere compilation from the works of those scholars who
are considered to be masters in the science. I have been especially careful to
avoid introducing any examples of my own, except where I could not find a
suitable one in any available work of authority. Beyond the mere form, there-
fore, but very httle belongs to me. The chief works trom which I have derived
my materials were : Bopp's Vergleichende Grammaiik ; Grimm's Geschichte der
deutschen Sprache ; Curtius, Die Bildung der Tempora und Modi ; Heyse's
System der Sprachwissenschaft ; but espacially from the two latter. I have
also occasionally derived assistance from Buttman's Greek Grammar, Kriiger's
Latin Grammar, and the works of Ahrens, Diintzer, etc.
Ebel's papers may be looked upon as emendations and extensions of Zeuss'
Grammar, and liis materials are almost altogether those which that work fur-
nishes. To understand his papers at all, the reader must be acquainted with
what Zeuss has done on the subject. As liis book is one likely to be found
only in the hands of very few persons, I have given, as an appendix, a trans-
lation of the portion of the chapter in the first volume of Zeuss to which the
papers of Ebel here translated refer; the shorter passages referred toby Dr.
Ebel have likewise been translated, and put among the foot-notes. In the
translations the author's notes may be distinguished from the editorial notes by
the latter being enclosed in brackets. The whole may be considered to form
a more or less complete treatise on Irish declension, from the point of view
of comparative pliilology.
Introduction. 51
The following is the order of arrangement of the several parts :
I. Introduction — On the Nature, Formation, and Classification of Stems,
with examples from the Greek, Latin, and Gothic, p. 51.
II. Celtic Studies (translated from the German of H. Ebel) :
1. On Declension in Irish, p. 79.
2. On the Article in modern Irish, p. 1 07.
3. On the so-called Prosthetic N, p. 108.
4. Additions to the article on Declension, p. 111.
III. Appendix. — Translation of the second chapter of Zeuss' Grammatica
Celtica, concerning the Inflexions of the Noun in Irish, p. 1 13.]
I. Introduction.
ON THE NATURE, FORMATION, AND CLASSIFICATION OP STEMS, WITH EXAMPLES
FROM THE GREEK, LATIN, AND GOTHIC.
§.1-
THE metliod of investigation employed in the modern science
of Comparative Etymology may be described as an analytic
process, to wHch tlie words of cognate languages are subjected;
consisting in successively stripping from them certain letters or
syllables wliicb have the symbolical power of expressing the quali-
ties, proportions, or relations in space and time, under wliicb the
subject contemplates the object — tliat is, so much of tlie phonetic
whole constituting the word, as fixes or limits the idea intended to
be expressed by it, and makes it the symbol of a definite concep-
tion. By this stripping process we obtain a residual syllable or
nucleus to which the term Root is given. A large number of
different words, not only in the same language, but in several
languages, subjected to this kind of analysis, may leave the same
syllable or root ; hence we may consider the Root of a series of
words as a phonetic symbol of an individual but logically indefi-
nite idea, the limitation or logical definition of the idea being
given by the sounds or syllables stripped off. The assumption
of such nuclei in words pre-supposes that the formative process or
growth of languages was a synthesis, the reverse of our analysis ;
or, in other terms, that the first symbols of ideas in a language
were Roots, out of which were elaborated the more developed
languages.
Roots form the common element of the languages comprised in
a family. Their number in any one family is comparatively
small; and all of them are not found in any one language, or in
an equal state of purity. The latter is especially the case in
modem languages, which have all become more or less disturbed
and mutilated by rubbing off the grammatical endings ; hence, in
most cases, we rarely get the true Root, we only get root-forms, —
and from these the primitive form and signification of the root
must be inductively established, not, however, by the study of
one language, but by that of a whole family, the different lan-
4 B
52 Celtic Studies.
guages of wliicli complement each other. The object of this
kind of analysis is not merely the discovery of the primitive
forms of the roots ; it also includes that of the grammatical ele-
ments themselves which are stripped off the roots. Comparative
Etymology may, consequently, be considered as a species of
Palaeography which has for its object the determination, from
their mutilated relics, of the primitive organic forms of a lan-
guage, — of that of the parent language of a family of languages, —
and, ultimately, of the parent language of all; exactly as the
object of Palaeontology is to reconstruct from the bones, shells,
etc., the forms which extinct animals had when living.
It is obvious from what has been said that it is erroneous to
speak of EngHsh Roots or Latin Roots ; we can only speak of Indo-
European Roots, etc. It will also be obvious that languages
which can be analyzed in this way cannot contain uncombined
roots. In process of time, however, and especially if great per-
turbations and mixtures of different peoples take place, the
grammatical elements affixed to the roots get shortened, muti-
lated, or drop off wholly, so that the root is laid bare. In
modern languages, as, for example, the English, we find several
naked roots, which, however, have the value of the words from
which they have been obtained by the gradual wearing off of
the clothing ; thus the word hand is in reality a root-form, having
now the full signification of a primitive noun, which in Gothic
had the form handus.
§.2.
^ Leaving out of consideration interjections, we may classify the
different kinds of words of which rational speech is composed
according to the following scheme, which is that usually followed
by grammarians : —
Corporal Words, Formational Words.
I. SUBSTANTIVES.
Noun-substantives Pronominal substantives (pro-
(nouns), nouns, /, thou, he, she, it, who,
etc.)
II. ATTRIBUTIVES.
A. Words defining the subject — Predicate words.
a. Adjectives.
a. QuaUtative atUectives. b. 1 Quantitative adjectives or
numerals.
2 Pronominal adjectives
(mine, thine, this, etc.)
3 Articles.
/8. Verbs.
a. Concrete verbs {to love). b. Abstract verbs (<o be).
Introduction. 53
Corporal Words. Formational Words*
B. Words defining the predicate — Adverbs.
a. Qualitative adverbs b. Adverbs of time, place, num-
(derived from adjectives). ber, etc,
III. PARTICLES.
A. Prepositions.
B. Conjunctions.
This arrangement renders the distinction between the words
which constitute the materials of speech, and those which express
the varying relations of space, number, time, etc., very evident.
And as the words of each class may be subjected to the process
of analysis, we get two kinds of roots, distinguished also as cor-
poral^ and formal oi formational Roots. As we may get the same
root from a noun, an adjective, a verb, or an adverb, a corporal
root must be considered to have the symbolic power of a whole
sentence ; that is, of expressing a whole concrete occurrence, but
without possessing any contrivance for expressing the person,
time, etc. Corporal roots may therefore be considered as founda-
tions for nouns and verbs, rather than as possessing the symbolic
power of either.
Assuming that language was synthetically developed from
isolated monosyllabic roots, we have next to consider how words
were formed from roots. The formation of words from roots is
called derivation y but the pure words thus formed must undergo
further modification, in order to express the varying relations of
speech. Thus, a Verb must have special contrivances to express
time, person, etc. ; and the Noun, number and case, etc. This
further modification is called fl^xion^ or word-hending . The
processes by which Derivation and Flexion are effected are fun-
damentally the same ; they are—
1. Internal phonetic change, which can only affect the root-
vowel, as the change of a consonant would necessarily
produce a change in the symbolic value of the root.
2. Addition of phonetic material to the root, which may be of
two kinds :
a. Such as spring from the root itself; or Duplication.
h. Affixes ; which may be Prefixes or Suffixes, but espe-
cially the latter. These Affixes may be :
a. Single sounds or syllables, which only occur as for-
mational elements of words, or word-forms, and which
of themselves have no signification in the fully-formed
language, and do not consequently occur isolated in it.
/3. Affixes which possess of themselves a distinct mean-
ing, and consequently may occur as isolated words
in the language.
54 Celtic Studies.
In the Semitic languages, vowel-change is a predominant
mode of word-formation and word- flexion. In the Indo-Euro-
pean languages it only appears as ablaut;^ that is, an interchange
of the primitive pure short vowels, a, i, w, but, at a later period,
of the newer vowels e and o also, which were produced by the
softening of the primitive vowels. This kind of vocalic change
(ablaut) appears to have been a fundamental agency of word-
formation in the Germanic languages. The vowel-change known
as umlaut is the change of the pure fundamental vowels a, o, w,
into the impure or obscured vowels a, o, u. This obscuration
of the pure root- vowel took place originally by the influence of
an i in the syllable immediately following the root. Later,
when the i was softened to e, the latter also acquired the power
of umlaut. Tliis kind of change, as distinct from ablaut, was,
perhaps, primitively only a mere phonetic process, which subse-
quently acquired grammatical and etymological signification.
Phonetic change, by means of affixes, is the great agent in word-
forming in the Indo-European languages.
The first kind of affixes are those employed in derivation
properly so called, and in inflexion. The second kind of affixes
— that is, those which possess of themselves a distinct meaning —
are used in making compound words. Some of the derivational
affixes may, however, be distinctly traced to selfstanding words
— such, for example, as the English suffixes hi/, Jiood, ship,
some. Indeed, the distinction between derivation and compo-
sition cannot be accurately defined; practically, however, it
exists in fully formed languages.
If some derivational affixes can be derived from significant
words, it is perfectly reasonable that philologists should endea-
vour to generahze the fact, and assume as probable that all
derivational and flexional affixes, which possess the symboHc
signification of formational words, were originally formed by
affixing such words to the word to be inflected. In modem
lan^ages where those flexional endings have been rubbed off*,
their functions are performed by words already existing in the
language. Such a view naturally leads to the assumption that
in the gradual development of languages all word-formation and
flexion were synthesis or composition.
^ Wherever special technical terms are invented in any language to express
certain definite ideas, they should be retained in translating from that language,
if the laws of euphony of the language into which the translation is made
at all admit of it. The words ablaut, umlaut, vorlaut, nachlaut, anlaut, inlavt,
a.ndauslaut are convenient terms, and better than any which could be made out
of Greek words. I have consequently used them throughout. Ablaut, umlaut,
vorlaut, and nachlaut are fully explained where they first occur. Anlaut is the
imtial sound, and auslaut is the final sound of a word.
Introduction. 55
We may assume tliree stages of composition: 1, Parathesis,
or the mere juxtaposition of roots ; 2, Agglutination ; 3, Amalga-
mation.
Parathesis. A language at tKis stage would consist of mono-
syllabic roots simply, tlie grammatical relations being expressed
by juxtaposition witb otlier roots. The same root, according to
its position in a sentence, may perform tlie function of a noun,
an adjective, verb, etc. Pott calls sucli languages, of wliicli the
Chinese aifords an example. Isolating languages.
Agglutination. In this stage the grammatical relations — mood,
tense, person, and class of verbs, number, cases, etc., of nouns,
are expressed by affixes to monosyllabic roots, which, though
invariable in function, are not inseparable from the root, each
relation being expressed by a successively added affix. In
thoroughly agglutinating languages all the affixes are suffixes,
and the root-vowel is itself inflexible, but modifies that of the
suffix, giving rise to the remarkable law of vocal harmony,
which exists in the Finno-Tatarian languages. The Semitic
languages show a liigher stage of agglutination by admitting of
prefixes as well as suffixes, the cases of nouns being formed by
prefixing prepositions, and still more by employing a change of
root-vowel for inflexion.^
Amalgamation. When the corporal and formational elements
become so intimately blended that both fuse into an indissoluble
unity, the formational elements produce true flexion, which
estabhshes a complete logical separation of the grammatical
categories. Languages at this stage are called by Pott, Amalga-
mating.
Bopp's classification is somewhat diflerent. He makes three
classes also, the first corresponding to the parathetical ; but in
the second he includes both agglutinating and amalgamating,
and makes of the Semitic languages a third distinct class.
The hypothesis that derivation and flexion were primitively
synthesis, and that the phonetic additions by which they are
affected were at first selfstanding words, constitutes the basis of
what is known as the agglutination theory. This theory is now
generally considered to be the correct one. Some philologists
seem disposed, however, to modify it so far as to admit two
kinds of affixed flexional materials: 1, Simple sounds or sylla-
bles, which were never selfstanding words, their symbolic power
^ Some examples illustrative of the process of agglutination in the Northern
Family of languages may be found at pp. 92 and 94, vol. I., of the Atlantis, in
the first part of my paper ''On the influence which the Physical Geography,
the Animal and Vegetable Productions, etc., of different regions exert upon the
Languages, Mythology, and early Literature of Mankind, etc."
56 Celtic Studies.
being derived from tliat which each individual letter is con-
sidered to inherently possess ; 2, selfstanding words polished into
derivational and flexional elements.
§.3.
In the foregoing section I have mentioned three kinds of pho-
netic forms: 1, roots ; 2, simple word-forms ; and 3, words clothed
with the inflexional elements, which express their relations to
each other as members of a sentence. But these do not include
every form. The simple word-forms are not as a rule obtained
by the direct addition of a grammatical element^ derivational or
flexional, to the root. Between the root and the grammatically
complete word there lies the word-stem^ upon which, and not
upon the root itself, the grammatical elements affix themselves.
Stem-formation is, consequently, the first stage of word-formation,
a stem is not a root, nor yet a complete word. From the root it
is logically distinguished in this, that the unlimited, or, as we
might say fluid, symbolic contents of the root are fixed or solidi-
fied, and rendered fit to serve as a basis for the symbol of the
completely determinate conception represented by the grammati-
cal word. While there are but two classes of Roots, corporal and
formational, there may be many kinds of Stems: for example,
we may have verbal, nominal, pronominal, and particle Stems.
Instead, then, of three categories of phonetic forms, we have, in
reahty, four: Roots, Stems, Simple word-forms, and Words clothed
with inflexional elements.
A Stem becomes a Word by giving to it the characteristic sign
of a definite word, which is phonetically done : —
1. Internally, by a change of the root- vowel.
2. Externally, by the addition of phonetic material, which
may be : vocalic, consonantal, or syllabic.
That is apparently by the very same means by which deriva-
tion is effected ; indeed, the phonetic means by which the two
processes of Stem-formation and Derivation are effected cannot be
absolutely distinguished, the same phonetic change or addition
being at one time stem-formation, and at another true derivation.
There is, however, an essential difiPerence between stems and
derivatives, the basis of the stem is the root, while the derivative
always proceeds from the stem. The two processes are, there-
fore, logically as well as phonetically distinct.
§. 4.
Before proceeding to describe in some detail the various
methods by which stems may be formed from roots, I must first
notice two changes which the root may suflfer, without giving
Introduction. 57
rise either to stem-formation, derivation, or flexion. The first is
root-variation^ which may be described as a phonetic change that
modifies or tempers more or less the symbolic value of the root,
without the latter ceasing to be a root. The result of this varia-
tion is to produce in the same language, or in cognate branches
of the same family of languages, two or more afiihated roots with
ahnost synonymous signilication, but dilSerhig in a slight degree
phonetically. These synonymous roots may appear to have been
evolved, as it were, parallel to one another, or the one to be
primary, and the other secondary. Of two such synonymous
roots we may consider the one which has the greatest phonetic
dimensions to be the secondary root. It is even reasonable to
generalize this hypothesis, and to assume all roots of considerable
phonetic dimensions to be secondary roots, even where we can
no longer detect the primitive root. This kind of variation takes
place either: 1, by simple modification of one or more letters —
vowels or consonants — e.g. yka^^ 7pa<^5 grab; or 2, by the addi-
tion of a sound or sounds — e.g. Latin trail., Greek rp^x (rpLx^w),
Gothic thrak, German trank, English drank. The letter added
in the examples of the second mode is n, and by its addition the
original idea symbolized by thrak^ which may be verbally ex-
pressed by to draw, is tempered, or modified so as to express
to draw into, that is, to drink.^^'"- In the change of the root
into a stem there is no such modification of the root-idea, but
only a mere solidification of its fluid contents.
lioot-variation is to be carefully distinguished from the second
phonetic change which the root may undergo without ceasing
to be a root — namely, the remarkable historical transposition of
sounds (lautverscJdebimg), schematized by J. Grimm, according to
which the mute consonants appear, in passing from the Greek or
Latin to the Gothic, and thence to the Old High German, to be
shifted forward in the direction in which the sounds are naturally
developed — that is, the labial, dental, and palatal medials pass into
the corresponding tenues, and the latter into the aspirates — thus
the Greek medial b is represented by the Gothic tenuis p and
by the O. H. German aspirate jo/i or/; the Greek p by Gothic/and
the O. H. German 6, etc. ; the Greek dental medial d by the Gothic
tenuis t and the O. H. German aspirate th; the Greek medial ^,
by the Gothic tenuis k, and the O. H. German aspirate kh, e.g.:
Greek ttovq, gen. ttoSoc"? Gothic /o^ws, O. H. German vuoz; daKpv,
Gothic tagr, O, H. German zahar (the sibilant z for the aspirate
th); Latin gelidus, Gothic kalds, O. H. German chalt, etc.^''^
2bi3. 1 (Jq jjq^ profess, in this introduction, to discuss the value of particular
laws, my object being merely to explain the nature of stems. I am aware that
some of the examples given above are not strictly in harmony with Benary's
58 Celtic Studies.
§.5.
The Phonetic methods of Stem-formation may now be de-
scribed in detail ; they are : —
I. Modification of root-voicel:
a. Ablaut proper, which is a very frequent change in the Greek ;
it is rather an accompaniment than a means of stem-forma-
tion. It does not occur in the Latin, but in the Germanic
languages it is very common, and was apparently the pri-
mitive means of stem-formation. Examples: root brack ,
stems 6nc/i, hrucli; £-j3aX-ov, jSoX-?}, (3i\-og.
h. Obscuration of the root-vowels a and i to ^, and of m to o,
a change which is assumed to have taken place in all
Greek, Latin, and German stems which have short e or o,
e.g.: root lig or lag — Atyw, lego; root rig — rego, reclit; root
vul (vult) — volo, etc.
c. Strengthening of the root- vowel, which may take place :
a. By lengthening the short vowel, as : root XaO, XrjOw,
Doric XaOtt).
j3. Gunation^ and Diphthongation — Examples of guna-
tion: root t, a//f, root ^uy, (ptvytj; in Gothic, root
hug, havg, root vit, vait. Examples of Diphthonga-
tion : root 0av, (jiaivh) ; da, daio). The latter and similar
roots ending in a vowel show the true relation of the i
to the root-vowel in <^aivw. Curtius has shown that
in the latter the form was ^av-t-w, a derivational i
(Sanskrit ?/a), being originally placed after the root,
but which by metathesis afterwards entered the root.
Gunation, according to some scholars, does not occur in
the Latin, and consequently the derivational i retains
its place outside the root in the verbs in io of the third
conjugation, as capio, morior, etc. This opinion is
not, however, strictly correct ; for although gunation
may be rare, the following examples show that it does
sometimes occur : foedus £ot foidus (if we may connect
Tri-TToiO-a), root /id, iriO, hi{n)d; Siurum, 2iurora, com-
pare U7'o, us-ium, Sanskrit root ush. The occurrence of
, this derivational i as an element of stem-formation
gives rise to a distinct and important class of stems,
law ; I did not, however, think of any less objectionable. But the same objec-
tion may be urged against Grimm's law of lautverschiebiing, to which, in other
respects, there are many exceptions. I have endeavoured to state below Grimm's
law as simply as possible, but, of course, the form in which I have given it is
not wholly imobjectionable.
' The term gunation is applied to the process by which e (at) is produced by
prefixing a to i or i, or 6 by prefixing a to u or H. Diphthongation and gunation
are well expressed by the German terms nachlaut and vorlaut.
Introduction, 59
which will be fully discussed further on in the section
on ya- or m-stems.
II. Consonantal strengthening of the root:
1. Duplication or doubling of the final consonant:
In the Greek XX, dialectically qq and vv ; o-o- (Boeot.), per-
mutated in the new Attic to tt. In the Latin there is
frequent duplication of Z, and in the German of I and rn.
In the former case it is the result of the assimilation of
a derivational y by the final consonant.
2. Affixation of a mute consonant foreign to the root. In the
Greek and Latin a r is thus affixed frequently, e.g.^ f^XairTU)
(j3Xaj3r]), pecto} In the Germanic languages this process
is not now recognizable.
3 Affixation or intercalation of a nasal :
a. Nasalizing an internal vowel. This change is common
in the Latin — e.g. : pango ; it also occurs in the Modern
German ; Old High German hdhen, thence New High
German hangen.
h. Affixation of the nasal in the auslaut :
a. After vowels. In the Greek we get from Ta., ycf,
rav., TEv, yiv. It is sometimes combined with diph-
thongation, as in fdaivw. In the German we have
ga becoming gaii, and gang.
j3. After consonants. Only few examples in the Greek ;
e.g., riiLLvo). In the Latin we have sterno, sperno, etc.
c. Affixation of a whole syllable, accompanied by nasali-
zation, of which we can only find examples in the
Greek : ve, va — Kvviw, dajuvaix) ; as av, by which the
root- vowel becomes likewise nasalized: root \a6 —
\av-6avM-
4. Reduplication ; as, for instance, iiifivii) for fiifxivd).
All the more important methods of stem-formation are em-
braced under the preceding categories. There are, however, a
few exceptional cases, such as where an intensive s is introduced
into the root, as : root ^ly — fiiayu), Latin, misceo (compare Ir.
cummasc, commixtio), which must not be confounded with the de-
rivational so of inchoative verbs. It may be well to observe here,
that the circumstance of stems being formed by the addition of a
whole syllable, the introduction of an intensive s into the body of
the root, etc., shows us how cautious we should be in concluding
that stem-forms, which at first sight appear extremely simple, are
the roots themselves. For example, (pav and Kpiv, although ap-
parently forms of very moderate phonetic dimensions, have been,
* Tlie Greek KTtig suggests that the ct of pecto may be radical.
60 Celtic Studies.
in reaKty, enlarged firom <^a and kqi. Then again, it is necessary
to be careful to distinguish between the stem and the pure words
or stem-words. For example, ettoc and corpus are true stems, as
is shown by attaching flexional elements to them ; thus, tirea-oq
contracted to etteoc, corpus -is softened to corpor-is. On the
other hand, 0fXI(w), Xo7o(c), fructu(s)^ are full words, con-
taining the derivational elements, w, c» s, respectively.
§.6.
The formation of stems may be considered the first separation
of words into grammatical categories, but it does not complete it ;
for although some stems are essentially verbal, and others nomi-
nal, there are many which admit of being made the basis either
of verbs or of nouns. The complete separation is only effected
when the sign which characterizes the complete word is affixed
to the stem. These grammatical signs are the derivational and
inflexional elements.
The characteristic signs by which the stem becomes a verb,
are the personal endings; those by which the noun is formed,
the gender and case endings. As Dr. Ebel's paper does not
deal with the verb, I shall confine myself entirely to nouns and
adjectives. The vocative, from its nature, ought to present us
with the pure nominal stem, but in the actual language this is
not generally the case ; and hence it is found more convenient to
assume the nominative as the basis of analysis.
One of the most characteristic distinctions between objects is
that which life affords, and accordingly the sign, by the affixation
of which to the stem the nominative form of the noun is pro-
duced, is a gender sign. For hving objects, the sign primitively
affixed to the noun-stem in the Indo-European languages was s.
Some scholars hold that neuter nouns were distinguished by t,
which they consider possesses a certain power of symboHzing
lifeless or inert bodies. But the evidence that t was ever used,
except in pronominal declension, as a sign of the neuter gender, is
very doubtful. The Gothic neut. adjective-ending ata is, accord-
ing to Bopp, merely a suffixed pronoun. Mankind has, however,
at all times, figuratively endowed certain hfeless objects with life,
and abstract conceptions, such as justice, virtue, etc., are em-
bodied as male or female forms, according as our fancy loves to
consider them of the one or other sex ; the names which are used
to symboHze these objects or abstract conceptions take, accord-
ingly, the sign of living objects.
The nominal sign s has, however, been but imperfectly pre-
sented ; the feminine forms, which incline to vocahc auslaut with
long vowels, seem to have thrown it off, apparently with the
b
Introduction. 61
object of marking the distinction of the sexes. This tendency to
have vocalic auslaut is well shown in the adjectives having the
endings in the Sanskrit, as, a, am; in the Greek, o?, a {rf), ov.
Even masculine forms often lose the s. In the Gothic it is only
preserved in masculine substantives with consonantal stems, and
in masculine adjectives and pronouns. In the Old High German
the substantives have altogether lost it, while in adjectives and
pronouns it has become r.
The neutral t of the pronominal forms has to a great extent
been lost. In the Greek it does not occur at all ; in the Latin it has
become d, e.g. : id, illud, quid, etc. In the Gothic it occurs in the
pronouns is, si, ita; English he, she, it; Old Irish e, si, ed; Gothic
sa, so, thata, Anglo-Saxon the, thed (earlier se, seo), that ( = GTeek
6,77,ro for ror = Sanskrit ia^J. In theOldHigh German it becomes
z, e.g. : Gothic third person of the pronoun masc. is, neuter ita =
Old High German masc. ir sometimes her, neuter iz, sometimes
ez. In the Gothic blindata, godata, Old High German plintaz,
guotaz. Middle High German hlindez, guotez, the ending ata, as
above observed, is a suffixed pronoun, and cannot consequently
be considered as a proof that t was the sign of the neuter, in
other than the pronominal declension. In many cases the neutral
t has been replaced by m or w, which, however, belonged origi-
nally to the accusative singular ; thus, Greek t, t v.
§ 7.
But the grammatical signs or endings cannot always be di-
rectly affixed to stems; this is especially the case with those
ending in consonants, and where the stem likewise ends con-
sonantally. If in such cases the ending did not affix itself
directly, the final stem-consonant would be rendered Hable to
change, and the modification may proceed so far as to render the
stem unrecognizable. Therefore a copulative vowel is introduced
between the stem and the ending, which originally had a mere
phonetic function, and possessed no etymological or grammatical
signification. The vowel by itself is always short, and conse-
sequently very changeable. It is often an extremely difficult
problem to distinguish between the copulative vowel and a
derivational vowel, and therefore between a derivational and
stem-form ; it is also an important one, for the copulative vowel,
though having no derivational character, has gradually come to
be looked upon as an integral part of the stem-ending, and has
even penetrated where it was not absolutely required.^
^ In Finnish nearly all the stems are two-syllabled. The first or root syllable
is accentuated, the second has a short vowel auslaut. This short vowel, unlike
the root-vowel, which is invariable, sounds differently according as the stem is
62 Celtic Studies.
But in some cases a whole syllable, the consonant forming the
auslaut, acts the part of the copulative vowel. The forms produced
in this way have necessarily more of the character of derivation
than those yielded by the copulative vowel, — indeed many of
them have the character of true derivation. But as I have
characterised derivation as always starting from fully formed
words, all noun-forms produced by means of copulative syllables,
that do not proceed from ready formed words, and which do not
distinctly refer to such as their etymological basis, but, on the
contrary, refer to a radical element which is not by itself intel-
ligible, must be reckoned to belong to the present category.
We have accordingly three distinct classes of stems as regards
their relations to the grammatical endings: — 1. Pure stems, to
wliich the endings are directly affixed; 2, stems which require
a vowel between them and the ending; and 3, stems which
require a syllable ending in a consonant between them and the
grammatical ending. The second and third classes are called
middle forms, that is, intermediate between pure stems and true
derivational forms.
Of the pure stems some have vocalic and some consonantal
auslaut. The middle forms, produced by affixing a copulative
vowel, may all be looked upon as vocalic ending stems, while the
middle forms, which result from affixing a consonantal ending
syllable, are consonantal stems. We have accordingly :
Vocalic Stems. Consonantal Stems.
1 Pure Stems. 1 Pure Stems.
2 Middle forms produced by af- 2 Middle forms produced by af-
fixing a copulative vowel. fixing a syllable ending con-
sonantally.
Vocalic Stems.
§. 8. Pure Stems.
All monosyllabic nouns may, strictly speaking, be considered
to be pure stem- words, in which the nominal sign is directly
affixed to the stem without any intervening phonetic material.
Such nouns occur in the Greek and Latin, though they are not
numerous. Greek: Ki-g (masc. gen. Ki-6g), ^pauc (ypa-oc)? both
of which appear to exhibit traces of a vowel not belonging to
pronominal or verbal. It is a mere rhythmical addition to the root which some-
times acquires the signification of a derivational suffix, and has consequently a
striking analogy to the copulative of the Indo-European languages. The
affixation of this copulative is the only mode of stem-formation in the Finnish ;
in Hungarian it has been to a great extent obliterated. It would be extremely
interesting to trace this rhythmical stem-forming vowel through the whole
Finno-Tatarian Family. Here, however, it would be out of place to dwell
further on the analogy.
Introduction. 63
the root ; Spue, ^w? possess still more of the character of pure
stems. Some forms usually included under this category are
undoubtedly not primitive pure vocalic stems ; for example, ^ovq
may perhaps be more properly reckoned among the conso-
nantal stems, as it stands for j^op-g-
Latin. In the Latin there are extremely few forms which can
be considered, strictly speaking, as pure vocalic stems. Perhaps
the only form is grus, stem gru, for it is doubtful whether the
r in the plural vi-r-es of vis (stem vir?), and in the old form of the
genitive — sueris — su-er-is o£sus, Sanskrit, su-kara, be not organic,
instead of being, as is generally supposed, merely euphonic.
Gothic. In the Gothic a number of such monosyllabic words,
belonging to what is called the strong declension, is to be found ;
in the masculine and feminine they have the nominative sign s,
while in the neuter no suffix can be found, e.g. : masc. fisk-Sj
dags, halg-s; fem. anst-s; and neut. leik. These nouns corres-
pond with the Greek nouns derived from consonantal stems:
OpiKj ai'S? TTup, and the Latin nouns U7'b-s, pons, mel. So far as
the nominative case goes, the analogy is complete ; but if we
compare them through all their cases, we shall find that in the
Greek and Latin the noims of this kind affix the case-endings to
the stem in exactly the same way throughout, namely, its nomi-
native directly, and the others by means of a copulative vowel,
which is the same in all the cases, while the Gothic nouns
take different vowels in the plural. For example :
Nom. and Voc.
. fisko-s
balge-is
Gen. .
. fiskd
balge
Dat. .
fiska-m
balgi-m
Ace.
fiska-ns
balgi-ns.
It would appear from this, that the Gothic nouns under con-
sideration are only relics of more primitive forms, still preserved
in the plural, but blotted out in the singular. According to this
view, all the nominal stems must have been clothed with a voca-
lic auslaut, which was either a or i, and called by Grimm the
declension vowels, and which correspond to the copulative vowels
of the middle forms in the Greek and Latin. The primitive
form of fisks must therefore have been fiskas, and of halgs,
halgis — forms which approach very close to the Latin, as may
be seen by comparing the primitive form o£ gasts, gastis = Lsitm,
hostis. The view just put forward is supported by the circum^
stance that there exists a class of nouns, in which the clothing or
declension vowel of the stem is u, that are not syncopated like
those with the vowels a and i. Although at first sight the Ger-
manic languages appear to contain the largest number of pure
64 Celtic Studies.
stems, the preceding considerations appear to show that there are
no pure nominal stems in those languages. On this account I
will include the whole of those Gothic nouns under the middle
forms with vocalic auslaut.
§. 9. Middle Forms ending vocally.
The term middle form implies that we have passed beyond
the stem, but have not yet arrived at a true derivational form.
The nouns derived from those middle forms have the same ana-
logy to those obtained from pure stems, that the Greek verbs ia
aw, £(u, ('w, etc. — as rifiaw, cjuXiio, fitBvtj have to those in fuHf as
€tjLit, Tidr]ijn^ St'^wjut, etc. The nominal middle forms have, how-
ever, much less of a derivational character tlian the verbs above
named; so that, while always bearing their mode of genesis in
mind, we may consider them as vocahc stems.
As the primitive vowels were a, z, u — e and o having been
formed later, the primitive stem-forming vowels must have been
also a, I, u. To these were added at later language-periods e and
o — e being formed by the softening of «, e of i, and o of a. There
is also a secondary u produced from a, wliich must not be con-
founded with the piimitive u. We may consequently include
all vocahc stems under a-stems, z-stems, and w-stems.
I-stems.
I-stems approach closest to the character of pure stems. In the
Latin the i becomes e; in the Greek it sometimes becomes v,
and in the oblique cases e.
Greek. — The masc^ulines and feminines of the third declen-
sion in -/c, gen. -log, -cwc, belong to the i-stems ; e.g.: (pvcrig (-foc)
TToXig. There are no neuters in i. We have a masculine form
m V, in 7r7i\ug (cwc)* and a neuter one in aoru {-emq): rax^gi
-iia^ 'V (gen. Tay^z-og), yXvtcvg^ etc., are forms in v of the ad-
jective. Tlie obhque cases betray in these examples the origin
of the V obtained from t.®
Latin. — The masculines and feminines of the third declension
in is, and the feminines in es, which do not take an augmenting
syllable in the genitive, belong to the z-stems as : hosti-s, civi-s,
aede-s; the * being changed in the latter into the long e charac-
teristic of feminines. In neuters the i is changed into 6^ but in
the plural the i again appeai-s: mar-^, mar-i-s, mar i-a. The
adjective stems, brevi, dulci, levi^ belong to this category.
Gothic— Among the Gothic t-stems which correspond to the
preceding, may be mentioned the primitive forms : masc, gastis,
• The passage of t into v, spoken of above, although believed in by some
eminent philologists, is not very satisfactorily established.
Introduction. €5
gardis, halgis, existing in the Gothic, in the syncopated forms :
^asts, gards, halgs^ but showing traces of the vocaUc clothing of
tlie stem in the plural: nom., gasteis, gardeis, balgeis; fern.,
dedisj vaurtis, syncopated in the Gothic to deds^ vaurls; nom.
phu'., dcdels, vaurteis. It will be seen from the preceding, that
the feminines also retain tlie nominative sign s, the feminine form
appearing to be marked by a gunation of the vowels of the
uJIngs in the genitive and dative singular, thus:
Masc, Fern,
Nom. . . gast-s ded-s
Gen. . . gast-is ded-ais
Dat. . . gast-a ded-ai
As in the Greek there are no neuters formed from z-stems.
In addition to the feminines above discussed, and all of which
belong to the strong declension, there is another peculiar class of
i-stems belonging to feminine nouns of the weak declension, such
as manageiy gen. manageins, which will be better understood
when I treat of the a-slems.
Adjectives derived directly from stems, and not through other
forms, although differing essentially from substantives in their
flexion, exhibited primitively the same distinction of stems into
a-, 1-, and w-stems, corresponding to the Greek adjectives in oc,
a, oy, and vg, cm, i» ; and to the Latin in ws, a, um, and in is,
e. But the primitive distinction is very much obscured in the
Gothic, in which, with the exception of traces, the z-stems have
wholly died out, while only a few of tJie «-stems remain ; and
even these pass in the oblique cases into the a-stems, with the
-addition of a derivational i (see the discussion of this subject
Tmder the head a-stems), so that the primitive character of the
stem is only recognizable in the nominative. In the Gothic
there are consequently only a- and w-stems to be disting-^uished.
A-stems.
Greek and Latin. The a-stems in the Greek and the Latin
^dmit of being divided into two classes : —
1. Stems m which the primitive a has been preserved un-
changed, or changed into e, and which maybe subdivided into :
a. Stems with primitive short a.
j3. Stems with a or e.
2. Stems in which the primitive a has been clianged into o in
the Greek, and into u in the Latin.
A'Stems with primitive short a. In the Greek the masculines
of the fii-st declension in -ac, -nc are refeiTed to this class, e.g.:
|3op£ac,'Ep/t£ac contracted to'.Epwr/c ; the nominative g is retained,
but the vowel is inorganically lengthened. In the Latin, also, only
HI. 5
66 Celtic Studies.
the masculines of the first declension, wliich, Kke the feminines of
the same declension, have lost the nominative s, belong to this ca-
tegory, as : scribay agri-cola, etc. Pott considers the long vowel as
the result of contraction. It is probable that all the words belong-
ing to this form are, in reality, derivatives in the second degree
from nominal and verbal stems, that is, they contain, besides the
nominative s, a second derivational element, which may still be
recognized in the Greek nouns in rrjg, as : ttoXittjc? etc., in which
the derivational suffix is the syllable tt}. This derivational suffix
reminds us of the consonantal middle forms produced by affixing
a syllable, the only apparent difference being that the latter has
a consonantal auslaut, and the former a vocalic one.
A -steins with a or e. As was stated above, feminine nouns
prefer long vowels and vocalic auslaut ; accordingly we find that
this class includes the feminines of the first declension in the Greek
and Latin, all of which have lost the nominative s. In the Latin
the a is invariably shortened, but in the Greek it is partly re-
tained, or changed into rj and partly into a, e. g.: x^P«j ^iKrj,
^(pvpa. While the vocative of the a-stems, with primitive short
a, appears as a rule with the organic short a, that of the stems
with a or ^ is the same as the nominative, and consequently
sometimes has an inorganic short a whenever the nominative has
one. The primitive long vowel has been preserved in the form
e, and likewise the nominative s, even in the vocative, in the
nouns from stems of this class, which belong to the Latin fifth
declension, wliich is but an older form of the first, e.g.: dl-e-s,
fid-e-s. Here also we meet with forms which appear to belong
to the class of vocaHc stems obtained by means of a derivational
syllable-suffix, as described above, the analogy being strongly sup-
ported by their admitting of being declined either according to the
first or fifth declension, e.g., materies or materia, canities or canitia.
A-stems, in which the primitive a has been changed in the
Greek into o, and in the Latin into u. This change occurs in
the words of the second declension in og, ov, and us, urn ; those
in OQ and us are, as a rule, mascuHne {as in the Sanskrit is always
masculine) ; there are some, however, exceptionally feminine, as
ri Ta(j>pog,fagus, etc. The vocative shortens o, u, to ^, has orga-
nically no nominative s, and in the neuter is the same as in the
nominative. To this category belong the Greek adjectives in
og, a (ri), ov, and the Latin ones in us, a, um. From this it
will be seen that the vowel is shortened in the feminine in the
Latin, but not in the Greek ; but, on the other hand, some Greek
adjectives of this category do not distinguish the feminine at all.
Gothic. To the Gothic a-stems belong the masculine, fe-
minine, and neuter forms corresponding to the Greek forms in
Introduction. 67
oc, a, ov, and tlie Latin ones in us, a, ?<m, discussed above, and to
the Sanskrit in as, a, am. For example: masc. dags, fisks, etc.,
which are syncopated forms from dagas, Jiskas, etc., as 1 have
ah-eady fully described, nom. plur. dagos, fiskos, etc. ; fern, giba,
hida, etc., nom. plur. gihos, hidos, etc. ; neuter, vaurd, leik, etc. ;
nom. plur. vaurda, etc. The masculines have lost the a in the
singular, but retained it in the form of o in the nominative
plural, e in the genitive, and a in the dative and accusative (see
declension ofjisks, pp. 63, 71) ; the feminines have retained the a
in the oblique cases as a or o, but have thrown oiF the nomina-
tive s. The neuter form has lost the a in the singular as well as
the neuter nominative sign: — the full form of the nominative
singular of vaurd, for instance, should have been vaurdat, or, as
the t has almost entirely disappeared as a neutral sign, more
probably vaurdam — Latin verbum; it has retained it in the
plural vaurda, but not with the neutral sign.
I have already spoken of the Gothic adjectives, and here it is
only necessary to add that, although the distinction between the
clothing vowels of the stems was earKer obscured, and to a greater
extent in the case of the adjectives than in that of the substantives,
the signs of the genders have been much better preserved. In-
deed, in the latter respect the Gothic adjectives belonging to the
«-stems have endings of a much more primitive form than either the
Greek or the Latin, or even than the Sanskrit.' These endings
are s, a, ata, or, in the primitive form, s, a, t, as for example : —
Masc. Fem. Neut.
Primitive organic form . . blind-a-s blind-a blind-a-t
Syncopated Gothic form . . blind -s blind-a blind-a-ta
Ya- or la-stems.
Besides the primitive a-stems, above described, there exists
another class of stems, which, as they do not give rise to any
essentially peculiar flexion, may be considered as a class of
secondary forms of the simple a-stems. They are formed by the
intercalation of an i (y) between the stem and the declension-
vowel, and may accordingly be distinguished as ya- (yd-) stems.*
In the Gothic the stems of this class are usually considered to be
middle-forms, properly so called, the Gothic a-stems being
reckoned as pure stems. I think I was justified, however, in
classing them along with the middle forms of the Greek and the
Latin, and that, this being so, the ya- (yd-) stems approached still
nearer to true derivational forms than any of those yet mentioned.
^ On the assumption that t was the primitive neuter gender sign, which is not,
however, generally admitted. Bopp considers the encHng -ata to be a suffixed
pronoun. See § 6, p. 60.
® Ya- masculine and neuter ; Yd- feminine.
5b
68 Celtic Studies.
The Greek and Latin forms which come under this category,
are the substantives and adjectives in toe, <«» i-ov^ ius, ia,
ium — e.g.: KvpLog,i^iog; medius, onedia, medium.
As the only forms of this kind referred to in Dr. Ebel's paper
are Gothic, and as the object of this sketch is merely intended
to elucidate that paper, I will not fiu'ther consider the Greek
and Latin ia~(id-)stems li/a-Q/a-)stems], and will accordingly
confine myself to a few observations upon the Gothic ones.
In the Gothic the intercalated y is firmly retained before the
endings through all the cases, e.g.: harjjis instead of hari-s
(the primitive organic form of which would be h arias) ; gen.
haryis; dat. Itarya, etc. Li the Old High German the nom. sing,
alone retains it. If the stem-syllable be long, or ends in two
consonants, yi changes into ei: Goihic hoirdeis instead of liairdi-s
(the primitive form of which would be hairdla-s) : Old High
German liirti^ gen. Mrtes; Middle High German lii.te., gen. Juries.
In the Modem High German it parses into the weak declension :
der hii'te, des hirfen. Some of the feminines of this category retain
the full organic form, such as vrahja, hvahya; and in some the
i is even preserved in the Old High German as y or e^ as for ex-
ample, sunlya; while other words throw off the a, e.g.: Gothic —
bandif kunt/ii, instead of bandy a^ kunthya.
The distinction between the a and the ?/a-stems disappears in
the masculines and feminines when the a and i of the Old High
German are softened into g, — the two forms then coinciding.;
the existence of such a distinction being only betrayed by the
umlaut of the stem- vowel in the ya series. The same obsei-vation
applies to the neuters, one example of which will suffice to show
their forms, e.g.: Gothic huni, gen. Jcunyis, instead of the full
organic form kunya-t^ or kunya-m^ or kuny-a; Old High German
cliunn-i^ gen. cJrnnn-es, the i being di'opped, as was already
noticed in the case of the masculines, in all the cases except
the nom. sing. In the Middle High German the i becomes e as
in the other genders : kiinne, in which the umlaut of the stem
vowel betrays the ya-stem..
The adjective forms of the ya-stems are exactly analogous to
the substantives. In the Middle and New High German the cha-
racter of the stem is betrayed only by the umlaut. The striking
analogy between some of the Gothic and Latin adjective forms
of the ya-stemSf is well shown by the following comparison :
Latin — medius, media, 7ned ium = Gothic — midis, midya, midyata.
Consonantal stems changed into vocalic (a- and i-) stems.
Some Latin n-stems drop the n in the nom. sing., e.g. : in dn, —
homo, ordOf margo, of which the full organic forms with the
Introduction. 69
nominative s should be : homon-Sy ordon-s, margon-s; in on, — leo^
latroy carhoy the full organic forms of which should be, leon-s,
latron-s, carbons; the feminine verbal nouns in ^o, which is ob-
viously louy with the n dropped, e.g. : actio, ratio, statio, etc., the
full organic forms of which should be, actions, rations, stations.
These nouns give us in the inorganic form of their nom. sing,
apparent vocalic stems. A comparison between the full organic
forms of the verbal nouns, which are undoubted derivatives in
the second degree, and those of the other examples given above,
affords strong giounds for believing that the latter also are deriva-
tional forms of the second degree. Except in not having a final
n in the nom. sing., these nouns are perlectly an^dogous, in all
the other cases, to the Latin nouns in in, especially to those in
which the i is softened to e in the nom. sing., e.g.: j^^cten, etc.;
and the verbal nouns /lumen, teamen, lumen, car men, etc., and
may be compared with the Greek uktiv, gen. uKrlvog ; Xtfiriv,
gen. Xifiivog; arjStjjv, gen. aridovog; ukwv, gen. eiKovog; Xei/ulwv,
gen. XeiiuLLJVog.
There is a class of Greek nouns, chiefly feminine, which
at first sight appear to form their stems in w, and which, as a
rule, do not tnke the nominative s, e.g.: r) ir^iOio, gen. irQiOoog,
the (X) being shortened to o ; 17 vx^o, gen. rjxoog, etc. Some are,
however, formed with the g, as ri aici-jg, gen. alSoog, the w being
shortened; ijowc, gen. I'/owoc, etc., without the shortening of the
w. According to Curtius, all these forms ai*e the relics of muti-
lated «-stems.® There is an obvious difference, however, between
them and the Latin foims — homo, etc. — with which, if this
hypothesis be correct, they would connect themselves, namely,
that the n appears regularly in the oblique cases of all the Latin
nouns, not only of those ending vocally in the nominatiA^e, but
even of those which take the nominative s, as sanguis, which is
evidently for sangwas.
In the Gothic, a class of nouns with vocalic auslaut is also found,
which exhibit a remarkable analogy with the Latin nouns just
discussed; for example, guma, Eng. g{r)oom, gen. gumins, which
may be equated with the Latin homo, gen. Iiominis; rathyo, gen.
rath//6ns, with the Latin ratio, gen. railonis; namo, gen. namlas;
nom. plur. namna, with the Latin nomen, gen. noniinis; nom.
plur. nomini. The reasonable conclusion from this is, that these
vocalic forms are in reality consonantal w-stems, having more or
less of a true derivational character. According to this hypo-
thesis, their full organic nominative forms should be : gumans,
' This hypothesis of Curtius, by which w, wg, ag, ar, are considered to be=
av, is, to say the least, extremely improbable.
70
Celtic Studies.
rathyon-s, namon-s. This hypothesis receives considerable sup-
port from the fa€t that several of those forms have again taken
up n in the Modern High German, e. g.:
Gothic,
boga, <LS!r-
graba(?), .
garda, . .
name.
Old High
German.
bogo, . .
grabo, krapo,
garto, . .
name, . .
Middle High
German.
. boge, .
. grabe, .
. garte, .
, name, .
Modern High
German.
bogen.
graben.
garten.^®
(name and
"J^also namen.
Probably all the foregoing examples may be referred to
71-stems ; but there is likewise a class of feminine nouns, which,
considering them as vocaHc stems, may be classed as ^-stems,
and which in the Gothic end in the diphthong ei, e. g.: audagei,
managei, gen. manageins, etc. ; they present the same pecuHa-
rities of flexion as the others above mentioned, as will be shown
further on. In this case also we are led to the conclusion that
they are w-stems which have thrown off the n, not only by the
analogy of flexion, but also by the fact that the greater part of
this class of nouns take up an /i in the nominative in the Old High
German; we thus get, along with maniki, manahin, while in
the Modern German we have menge, unlike the a-stems. So
also Old High German odhin and oedi, New High Gerrnan
cede; ster chert ^ New High German stdrke.
The dropping of the n does not, as has been already remarked,
aflect the declension of the Latin or Greek nouns ; but it is not
so in the Germanic languages, where a pecuhar declension has
been developed, known as the weak declension, in contradistinc-
tion to the strong or true declension of words Hke fisks, dags, etc.
The diflerence will be better understood by the following com-
parison :
Strong : Nom. sing, fisks ; gen. fiskis ; dat. fiska ; ace. fisk ; plur. nom. fiskos.
Weak:
hana ; „ hanins ; „ hanin ; „ hanan ;
hanan.
All the nouns of the class we have been here considering
belong to the weak declension, the great peculiarity of which is
the addition of an n to all the endmgs of the cases, except the
nominative singular and dative plural. It belongs to adjectives
as well as to substantives, but while the latter decline exclusively
strong or weak, adjectives may be dechned according to either
'" Besides garda, there is also in the Gothic the word gards (plural gardeis)^
house, family, etc. ; but evidently having the meaning of garden also, as is
proved by veingards=\mcyKr(ii ; awr«/9orc?s=orchard. The German garten=
English garden, could not, however, be obtained from it ; but, on the other hand,
the English yard (as in court-yard) is derived from it.
Introduction. 71
declension. The weak adjective declension corresponds with
that of the substantive ; its chief peculiarity is that of having
vocalic auslaut in all three genders, e.g.:
MasG, fern, neut.
blinda, blindd, blindd.
The same vowels characterise the genders, e.g.: masc. hana;
fern, tuggo; neut. hairto. In the Old High German the masculine
a and the feminine 6 change to a. In Middle and New High Ger-
man both the a and o become e, so that all genders end alike.
Tliis change is not, however, confined to the vowels ; for although
in the Gothic the case-endings are not affected by the addition
of the n, the genitive s is dropped, and hanins becomes hanin.
In the Middle High German, the uniform ending en took the
place of all the different endings, both singular and plural, with
the exception of the nominative singular.
The existence of the s in such Latin forms as sanguis (for
sanguin-s), which belong to the same class as ratio, nomen,
etc., justify, as I think, the additions of that nominative sign, in
reconstructing the full organic nominative forms of those and
similar nouns. For its addition in the analogous German nouns,
I have the great authority of J. Grimm ; but Bopp's discovery
that the primitive nominative sign in the Indo-European
language was s, places the matter beyond doubt. It is right,
however, to state that some philologists, amongst others Heyse,
consider that the full organic forms never had s. A full discus-
sion of this point, however important, is incompatible with the
limits of our space, and would be in other respects outside the
specific objects for which this introduction has been written.
U-stems.
Greek. Under this head come the Greek words in vg of the
third declension, which retain the v in the oblique cases, e.g.:
nom. 6 LX^vg, voc. tx^^» S^^- ^X^*^o^» ^*^-
Latin. The Latin ^^-stems belong exclusively to the words
declined according to the fourth declension, such as those in its:
they are chiefly mascuhne, but also exceptionally feminine, e.g. :
manus, socrus, etc.; verbal nouns in tus, which may be con-
sidered to be true derivatives in the second stage, e.g.: ductus;
neuters in w, e.g.: cornu. The nouns of the second declension,
which appear to contain z<-stems, are a-stems, the a having been
replaced by u. This secondary u is much more unstable than
the primitive u of the fourth declension, which is never sup-
pressed by^ the vowel of the ending, but, on the contrary, absorbs
the latter in the genitive singular and nominative and accusative
72 Cellic Studies.
plural, e.g. : fructuSy instead o^fructuis^fructues. It has not wholly
resisted modification, however, having been, in most cases, softened
into i in the dative and ablative plural, e.g. : from the older fruc-
tubiiSy has come fructihus; in others, however, it has remained
unchanged, as in acubus, lacuhus. The whole declension may be
considered as a contracted secondary form of the third declension.
Gothic. The Gothic words founded on w-s terns correspond
exactly with the Greek words in vq of the third declension, and
the Latin ones in us and u of the fourth. Unlike the Gothic a-
and 2-stems, the w-stems are not syncopated, and consequently we
get them in their primitive organic forms, the mascuhne and femi-
nine taking the s in the nominative singular, e.g.: masc. vuUhns,
siinusy nom. plur. sunyiis; fern, handas, nom. plur. Iwiidtjmy
vrithus, etc. The neuter exhibits no truce of its peculiar sign t
or m, e.g.: wihi, faiha. The mascuhnes and neuters preserve the
u in the singular in the Old High German, but lose the nomina-
tive #, e.g. : sunUy wihu, etc. In the plural the M-stems pass into
the f stems ; and in the Middle High German they altogether
disappear, the masculines and feminincs becoming confounded
with the z-stems, and the neutei'S mth the a-stems.
I have already mentioned that the primitive distinction between
the a-, i-j and w-stems was very much obscured in the case of ad-
jectives; and that, with the exception of tiaces, the ^-stems had
wholly died out. The w-forms of the adjective, which were not
very numerous, took s in the nominative of both the masculines
and femi nines, but the neuters had no gender sign, e.g.: nom.
masc. and iem. licivdus; neut. liavdn. The ^^-forms died out in
the Old High German, leaving for all adjectives only a-stems.
CONSONANTAL STEMS.
§. 10. Pure Stems.
S-stems.
Greek, and Latin. — 6 fiug, (miis.) gen, fw6(^, which stands for
fiv<T-ogy=muris for mus-is. In the forms like oag, gen. wr-og —
<f>u)gi gen. (jxjjr-og, etc., either the r has become g, or the nomina-
tive s has inorganically affixed itself, in which case the t dropped
out. In either case these foi-ms belong primitively to dental te-
nuis-stems, and not to the s-stems. Mus, flos, mas, without the
nominative sign. Except in vds, vdsisy s becomes r in the oblique
cases, as it stands between vowels. It sometimes appears dupli-
cated, as in 05, ossis, but here it stands for st (compare oareov).
Stems with Sonant Auslauts.
(Semi-vowels, m, /, w, r, ng.)
Greek and Latin. — Semi-voweh: 7i{xhxnigv-s,hos £oibov-Sj
Introduction. 73
etc.; l-sfems' a\-g, sal; n-stems : pig for piv-g, the liquid having
dropped out, (ppijv, without the nominative sign ; Pan, without
the nominative suffix ; r-stems : x^''P' ^W> ^^^- ' f^^'^^ without the
nominative signs.
Stems with Medial Auslauts.
Greek and Latin. — B-stems : (p\^\p for <^X£j3-c, the -g being
the nominative suffix: urh-s, scob-s; d-steins\ irovg for Tro^-g:,
pes for ped-s; vas for vad-s, the dental having dropped out;
(^-sterns : ^Ao£ for (pXoy-g ; lex for leg-s^ rex for reg-s.
Stems with Tenuis Auslauts.
Greek and Latin. — P-stems: yv-^p for yvir-g; op-s, etc.;
f-slems: (pwg for (jtwr-g] dens for dents, pons for pont-s, etc.;
k'Slems: Xvy^i for XvyK-g, Gfii^ for o-e^TjK-g; pax £ov pac-s.
Stems with Aspirated Mute Auslaut.
Greek. — dol'i for TQ[\-g, (di)^ for /Bj? vt*-
Gothic. — It has been shown in a previous section, that pure
consommlal slems, pioperly so called, do not exist in the Gothic,
and that the forms which at first sight might come in here, belong
rather to the vocalic middle forms, under which they have accord-
ingly been treated. I. shall mei'ely give here a few examples of
forms which might olhei'wise have come under the respective
categoiies above given for the Greek and Latin: saic-s, froiv;
bagm-s, Ju/m; 8tol-s,mel; sliui\figgr-s; stab-s, lamb; sand-s, land;
hugs, gagg; hups, sL'p; shifis, heist; striks, leik; munths, etc.
§. Consonantal Middle Forms.
The nominative of some of the forms which come under this
head exhibit the complete stem, which in the oblique case may
be unrecog^nizable, owing to letter-changes or the dropping of
letters. In most cases, however, the stem can be better deter-
mined from the oblique cases, in consequence of the nominative
s, or the change of the vowel of the affixed syllable so altering
the appearance of the stem in the nominative as to render it lui-
recognizable. The form of the stem to which the case-endings
in the oblique cases are affixed is usually called the theme, to
distinguish it from the true stem-form, with which it sometimes
coincides, but generally not. The neuter form of adjectives is
best adapted for determining their stems.
Sstems.
In studying the stems of this class, we should be careful to
distinguish the s stems proper from words with the auslaut s, in
74 Celtic Studies.
some of wKicli the s is secondary, being formed by the softening
of a ty etc., and in others it is the nominative s, before which the
liquid n and the mutes a and t have dropped out.
Greek. — Neuters of the third declension in oc ( = Sanskrit as)
which show the pure stem in the nominative ; in the oblique
cases the o becomes e, and the c drops out, e.g.: yiv-og, gen.
yiv'h-oQ for ytv-ecr-og, and contracted to jev-ovg. Adjectival
substantives in tjc, foc=ouc, e.g.: i) rpiriprig; — forms of this kind
may be considered as true derivatives. Adjectives in rjg, sg,
e.g.: Ga(^r]gy aa<l>ig, gen. (ra<p-i-og for o-a^-ltr-oc, and contracted to
(7a(j)0vg.
Latin. — To this category belong certain isolated masculine
and feminine substantives in os, such as : honos, arbos, the s of
which was afterwards softened to r. The adjective vetus comes
under this head also. The substantives in is and us : pulv-is,
ciri'is, ven-us, tell-us^ are most probably r-stems, in which the r
has dropped out before the nominative s. Neuters of the third
declension in us (= Greek oc), the affixed syllable us being
weakened before the oblique case-endings to or or er^ e.g.:
corp-uSy gen. corp-us-is, weakened to corp-^r-is, genus, gen.
gen-US-is, weakened to gen-Sr-is.
Stems with Sonant Auslauts.
The stems which come under this category are : in the Greek
those in V, p ; in the Latin and the Gothic /, w, r. M does not
occur as the auslaut of a stem in either the Greek or the Latin.
The pure stem is preserved in the nominative in the neuter, — the
vowel being always short in the Greek. The other genders are
distiQguished iu the Greek either by the nominative s, before which
the liqiiid drops out, or especially in the feminines, by lengthening
the vowel of the formational or affixed syllable. No such dis-
tinction of gender occurs in the Latin, the nominative s ha\dng
given way to the liquid in almost every case, except in a very
few instances, e. g. : sanguis for sanguin-s.
L-stems : stem-forming syllable il : masc. Latin pugtl, mugil,
Gothic, sauil; ul: Gothic, Hakul-s.
N-stems: stem-forming syllable an; Greek neuter adjective
fiiX-av, Gotliic, saban; an: masc. Tramv, gen. iraiavog; en:
\ifjL{]v, gen. Xifiiv-og, en: "EXXriv, gen. "EXXijvoc; 'tn softened
to en in the nominative in pecten, and in the derivational
suffix of verbal nouns, -men, gen. -minis, e. g. : lumen, flumen,
etc.; in: aicriv for aKrlv-g; 6n: Greek adjective ttcttov,
masc. substantives daifitov, gen. daijaovog; on: Xttjuwv, gen.
Xetjuwvoc. To the preceding may be added the nouns with
vocalic auslaut, which are considered to have thrown off
Introduction. 75
the n, and wliich I have ab-eady discussed, as : homo, Macedoy
carho, etc.
R'Stems: stem-forming syllables — dr: veicrap, Latin Caesar,
Gothic Kaisar, fadar ; ar: calcar, gen.calcdris; ^r; 6 arip gen.
atpog, Latin anser, Gothic, maurtlir; er: Kparrip. In this and
similar words the stem-forming syllable may be considered to be
T-np, and to be a derivational one for verbal nouns ; dr.- prjrwp, gen.
pijTopog — here the stem-forming suffix is rop, which may be com-
pared with the Latin ones in tor and sor, e.g.: lector, cursor; — mar-
mor is produced, however, by duplication and not by suffix ; ur :
masc. augur, gen. auguris, in which the u remains unchanged in
the genitive case ; turtur is a stem also formed by duplication ;
neuters which retain the u in the obhque cases : sulfur and the
dupHcated stem, murmur; neuters which soften the u to d: femur,
gen.femoris, etc.
Stems with Medial Auslauts.
Stem-forming syllable ih; adjective caelebs, gen. caelihis; uh:
6 x«^^^' ^'^^ x«^^i^'^' g^^- X^^'^i^oc; ad: Xa/xirag, gen.
Xa/z7ra§oc, lampas, gen. lampddis; ed: merces, gen. mercedis; id:
fXirig, gen. eXmdog, cuspis, gen. ciispidis, praeses, gen. praesidis :
id: Kpi]7rig, gen. Kpr}7rtBog ; od: custos, gen. custodis; iid: palus,
gen. paludis. Ag is not found either in the Greek or Latin ; eg. :
lelex, gen. lelegis; ig : remex,^ gen. remigis; ug: irripv^ for
irripvy-Q (in the Greek the nominative s fuses with the labial mute
h and in the Greek and Latin with the palatals), gen. TrripvyoQ.
Stems with tenuis auslauts.
Stem-forming syllable dp : ri XalXaip for XaiXair-g, gen. XaT-
XaiTog ; ip : adeps, gen. advpis. Princeps and similar words do
not come here, as they are true compound words in which one of
the constituent stems is the pure stem ceps. Op and op occur
only in stems forming constituents of compound words, e. g. :
KVKX(i)-ip, gen. kvkXwttoc, etc. At: a great number of the
Greek forms in dt throw off the t in the nominative, and
are, therefore, somewhat analogous to the Latin w- stems homo,
ordo, etc., which throw off the n, e.g.: (rCjfia, aTojia, ^pajxa,
mpayfia, etc., which form their genitive in roc- Sometimes r is
replaced in the nominative by p or g, e.g.: rjirap, gen. ?j7raroc ;
Kplag, gen. Kptarog. To the same category belong such forms in
U, as : jUfXt, gen. /miXiTog. The Latin forms which may be referred
to stems in dt, dt, St, and et, drop the t in the nominative, but
retain the s, e.g. : anas, libertas, teges (the e becomes long after a
vowel, as in abies), quies. So likewise the Greek forms in et and
it, such as : ladr]g, gen. ^aQrirog \ xnpig, etc. The Latin forms in
76 Celtic Studies.
U have tlie f softened to e, e.g.: miles, gen. milUis. The follow-
ing forms also occur: zt, e.g.: Somnis, plur. Samnltes; 6t, e.g.:
epiOQ, gen. c'pwroc; "'^epOs, gen. nepoii?; vt: sohis, gen. sahlti'i.
To tills categoiy belong also tlie Greek forms in k and the
Latin in c, of wlileli it will only be necessary to mention a very
few. Stem-ibiming syllables aK, ac: iriva^ for irivaK-c: (we may
also add here the forms in -qkt, as ijiva'i^ gen. avciuroc)', ah, etc:
6wpa'^;fo7'm(uv, and the adjectives having the deiiva!ioiial suffix
aCj such as alidade, ccpa.v, which inoiganically retain the nomi-
native s; EK, Sc: c(\o>7r>YS, g^^-t ciXu)7reKog, the neater halec, or,
fused with the nominalive s, masc, ho/e.c; tK, ic and ic: ^o7i/t|,
salLu, gen., sahcU, radiv, gen., radicis; oc: CappoAox; oc, ferox;
VK, uc: Jc/^oDs, gen., uiioTjicog, PollfiiV.
There are also in the Gieek stems in vr, vO but not in vS; in
the Gothic there are al^ro stems in n, t, and nd, but as
my object is rather to show what stems are, ihim to give a de-
tailed account of all their forms, I will not dwell fui'ther upon
this part of the subject,
§.11. DERIVATION.
Having so often spoken of derivation as distinguished from
middle forms, and ?/c'-stems, I think it mil not be out of place
if I say a few addilional words upon the subject here. The
words formed by derivation are: one kind of verbal forms from
another, as, for example, diminutives, inchoatives, etc., verbs
from nouns ; nouns from verbs ; one kind of noun from another,
such as diminutives, feminine names, patronymics, abstracts
from concretes; adjectives from substantives; substantives from
adjectives; adieclives fiom verbs; adverbs from adjectives, etc.
The dei-ivational affixes are of two kinds: 1. Of affixes con-
sisting of siugle lettejs or syllables, which in their present state
are not only not seK^standiug words, but {*annot even be traced
up wilh certainty to selfstanding words, though having a definite
symbolical signilicaiion which modides the meaning of the stem.
2. Syllabic affixes which aflx)i'd evidence of their having been
once selfstanding words, but which in process of time have been
modified and have lost that character.
It is often very difficult to distinguish between derivatives by
means of the first kind of affix and the middle forms about
which so much has been said in the preceding pages, especially
when the affix consists only of a vowel. The origin of the first
kind of derivational affixes is a problem of great interest and im-
portance, but obviously one which would be quite foreign to my
present object, even could I devote space to it, and feel compe-
tent to treat of it ; I will therefore confine myself to giving a few
Introduction. 77
examples by which their character may be judged of. Verbal
ufixes: Greek tu, a^, ci, v5, w^ atvy etc., e.g.: KoXaK-ev-to from
KoXa^, \evK-aiv-(i) from Xeukoc ; the sign of the inchoative verb
(TK = Latin so; the Latin diminishing syllables il, ul, e.g.: ventilo.
JVoun-Suf'des : /^oc, evg, Tr}g, etc., e.g. : (^aOfiog, etc. ; the
Latin ^/o (properly ti-on), e.g.: medita-tio; the English er^ tion,
etc., e.g.: carpent-er, imagwa-tion; in the German y«^-(i we have
an example of a derivational suffix consisting of a single letter.
Adjectival Affixes: poc, ^•^•.* ^^oi^c-pog; the Latin alis, etc., ^.^.:
leg-alls.
The derivational affixes of the second class, being of greater
phonetic dimensions than those of the first, have been less
intimately fused with the stem, and consequently their historical
development from selfstanding words can be more clearly
traced. This kind of derivation was originally without doubt
simple composition of the same kind as that by which compound
words are still formed in living languages. It is the first stage
of amalgamation from the mere agglutination which takes place
in the formation of such words, as, peiihnfe, moonshine^ etc.
Its transitional character is made still more evident by the cir-
cumstance that the affixes of this class are prefixes as well as
suffixes, and that the fojiner diffi^rs from particle composition in
this only, that in the latter, two selfstanding words still existing
in the language, combine together, while in the former, a selS
standing stem combines with a letter or stem not now selfstand-
ing. In the Greek and Latin the deiivatives of the second class
are neither so well marked or so numerous as in the Germanic
languages. The suffixes -ftSrjc? -(popoo, fe,c, dicus, etc., are really
stems, and consequently we may considei* words ending in them
to be compound words, rather than derivatives, e.g. : OsoeiErtQ,
Kavr}(l>6pog^ arfife.v, meudicus^ He
In the Euglish we have a number of well marked derivational
suffixes of this class; e.g.: /^oo6Z = German, heit, Gothic, haidus,
way, condition, as for instance, girlhood; ship = Gei'mixn, schaft,
Old High German, sc«/, shape, property, etc., as partnership;
c?om = German, thum, Gothic, c/om, primitively, tribunal, dignity
or condition of a person in genejal, as, for instance, didrdom;
so?7ie = Gothic, sam, a stem which signifies similarity, and, hence,
Gothic, soma, English, same, e.g.: handsome; /// = German, lich,
Gothic, lelfc, Old High German subsiantive lih, English like,
body, shape, etc.
The following are examples of prefixes: Latin — in, dis, com
(con, co), re, all of which have been borrowed into the English,
which has also the prefixes un, be, etc., belonging to it as a Ger-
manic language.
78 Celtic Studies.
§.12. COMPOSITION.
This is tlie last stage of word-formation, and consists merely ot
the union of two stems, or even words with grammatical endings,
so as to form one word. In the older language-periods a copu-
lative vowel was frequently introduced between the constituent
words — a phenomenon which offers a remarkable analogy to the
stem copulative vowel. In the Greek, this vowel was generally
o, seldomer t, or £ ; in the Latin z, and exceptionally o, or u; in the
Old High German it was generally z, afterwards e; and in the
Modern German, as in the English, it has dropped out, or an s,
and in the former language an en, which are flexional endings,
have taken its place, e. g., -n/zfp(o)Spo/ioc, carn(i)fex, nacht(i)gall,
IIulf(s)huch, Tasch(en)luch, doom{s)day. It is worthy of remark
that the English word nigM{in)gale presents a kind of transition
between the simple copulative i and the more usual Modern Ger-
man en. The copulative vowel belonged, in the older languages,
only to noun forms, and not to those obtained by the union of
verbs and particles. Combination is sometimes accompanied
by phonetic changes in one or both of the constituents;
such, for example, as that which takes place in the stem-vowel
in the Latin verbs: legere, coUigere, etc.; or the grammatical
sign of the first constituent word is dropped. The first mem-
ber of a compound word, whether noun or verb, usually oc-
curs in its stem form, and where necessary with the copu-
lative vowel; the second member alone takes the gender or
nominative sign. Occasionally, however, the first member enters
into combination with its grammatical endings affixed, so that the
latter get thus intercalated between the two constituent members.
One of the constituents of a compoimd word represents the
fundamental idea or basis of the conception ; the second, the
secondary idea by which the former is determined, modified, or
limited. The former may be compared to the root of a word,
and the latter to the grammatical affixes ; with this difference,
however, that the latter are chiefly suffixes, while in compound
words the fundamental word is usually the last member ; the qua-
lifying word is consequently prefixed, e.g., hride-groom, glass-icin-
dow, and window-glass. In some Greek verbal nouns the revei-se
position of the constituent members is apparent, e.g., (piXo^oyog,
etc. It was probably the oldest form of composition, but has
almost wholly disappeared from written language, even from the
Sanskrit. Curiously enough, it exists both in the spoken English,
French, and German, e.g., breakfast, tire-botte, taugenichts. This
circumstance offers some interest in connection with the origin of
affixes.
On Declension in Irish. 79
II. Celtic Studies.
By H. Ebel.
1. on declension in irish.
BOPFS sagacity has never been, perhaps, so brilliantly proved,
as in the discovery that the whole of the aspirations and eclip-
ses, by which the Modern Irish declension is apparently disfigured,
are nothing else than the relics and results of the after-action
of the old case-endings.^^ Zeuss' determination of the old forms
of the article has confirmed this supposition in the most complete
manner, as regards the n and the consonant aspirations ; the t and
h before vowels are, however, to be somewhat differently under-
stood. After what Zeuss remarks (pp. 59 and 63),^^ we cannot
help regarding the 7i as, in the beginning, a useless and arbitrary
addition before vowel anlauts, which, at a later period, permanently
fixed itself after vowel auslauts ; the passage of s into h appears
to be foreign to the Gaedhelic branch of the Celtic; in the
dative plural, where h likewise appeai-s before vowels, it is not s,
but b, which has dropped off; for from donahis^^ the Modern Irish
^' Die Celtischen Sprachen, etc. S. 22, et seq.
^' («) [The passages in Zeuss are as follows : —
P. 69 : "H is not found as a radical in the Irish ; and if in ancient MSS.,
besides the combinations ph, th, ch, the h is also seen alone, which only happens
at the commencement of words, it is nothing more than a breathing prefixed
to the initial vowel, as in the ancient Gaulish names : Hercynia, Helvii. This
h, neither a radical nor a necessary letter, occurs, without any fixed rule, in
one place, and is not found in another, ; as : uile, huile (all), Wb. fq. ; eula
(wise), Wb., heulas (wisdom), Sg. 209* ; aui, hdui (descendants), Sg. 28^ 30'' ;
and so on. The ancient language knows nothing of that regular usage accord-
ing to which the modern dialects, Irish and Gaelic, prefix the A in a hiatus to the
initial vowel of a substantive following the forms of the article na (gen. sing.
fem., and nom. and dat. plur.) or preposition ending in a vowel. We find,
indeed, for example, inna hlrise (of the faith), Sg. 209^ but also inna idbairte
(of the offering), inna indocbale (of the glory), inna amne (of the soul), na
cecilse (of the Church), Wb. 22*^ 22^ 25*= 27*; na accobra (the desires), Wb. 20<=;
la Atacu (with the men of Attica), Sg. 147* ; a oentu (from unity), Wb. 26'' ;
aalbain (from Scotland), Marian. Scot. ap. Fertz. 7, 481".
P. 63, " The s drops out by ' infection' in the ancient language.* The more
recent language, indeed, which expresses the aspirate in its primary state as a
strong s, almost as ss, pronounces the same letter when mortified or ' infected' as h ;
but I think this h is of still more recent origin than the A in a hiatus between the
article or a preposition and the initial vowel of a substantive following, of which
supra. For the ancient Irish MSS. either mark the mortified s, like the/, by a
dot [the />?<«c^i<?;i c?e/en5, used commonly in mediaeval MSS. to mark a letter
written by mistake, and to be omitted], or else omit it altogether".]
'^ [i. Kead *donaho (from * du-sannabo). Ebel's hypothetical dotiabis is due to
* [" Infection", or "mortification", as it is called by some grammarians. Dr. O'Donovan
calls it "Aspiration"; which he defines thus: "Aspiration, a grammatical accident, the
general use of Avhich distinguishes the Irish, Gaelic, and other cognate dialects of the Celtic,
from all other modem languages, may be defined as the changing of the radical sounds of tlie
consonants from being stops of the breath to a sibilance, or, from a stronger to a weaker
sibilance".— O'D., Gram. p. 39-40.
80 Celtic Studies.
dona has been fiist developed through the Old Irish donaih or
donah. On the other hand, we also frequently find the t
(Zeuss, 55, 231, etc.)'* after n in Old Irish, even where d should
generally stand, before eclipsed s. Hence, we cannot look upon
the t in the nominative of the article as a substitute for s, but
must assume that it had preceded the s in the more ancient
forms of the nominative, and afterwards remained when s dropped
off. The Old Umbrian appears to afford a parallel to this:
it never shows an ns, except instead of nns in Palsans^ but
either nz or z (enze^onse) or s (neirhabas). Accordingly, in
the modern form of the language, this t is to be found wherever a
vowel has dropped out from between n and s, equally whether
the s belongs to the article (as in masc. an tiasg, the fish, instead of
{an(t)s iafig,) or the noun substantive (as in fem. an tsla.t, the
rod,'^ instead of an(t) slat).^^ It is absent when s or another con-
his theory that the O. Ir. dat. plur. sprang from an instrumental (Sansk.
-hhis). But this theory is destroyed by the Gaulish inscription of Nismes {Revue
Archeoloc/ique, 1858, p. 44), in which Dr. Siegfried has recognized two datives
plur. — viz., mdtrebo namausikubo (matribus nemausicis), which are genuine
descendants of the Indo-European datives plur. in -bhias, Sanskr. -bhyas, the
i (y) being ejected as in Lat. -bus. In donaib the stem-vowel a has been wea-
kened into ai.
'* (6) [The passages in Zeuss are as follows: —
P. 55. "The form NT, also, occurs in forms of pronouns coalescing with
the preposition in, but only when the preposition governs the accusative
case: inte (= in earn, fem.) Sg. b* ; infeM (gl. in ipsam) Sg. 199% 209^;
tw/m (in eos) Sg. 7% Ml. 21*. 28^ Thence _ we might expect for the
other persons the forms: int'ium (= in me), intiunn (== in nos), inik (=
inte), inilb (== in vos), inils (= in eum), which I have not met with in
MSS. The harder form, hit, of the article prevails before vowels in the sing,
nom. of the masc. gender, in which, after the usual form of the article, m,
the hard form of the consonants is retained. Therefore the harder form nt seems
to coniain in itself the signification of action (motion, in the preposition), of
hardness of form and of the masculine gender ; the softer nd that of the passive
(rest, in the preposition) of softening [of the letter] and of the feminine gender.
It is to be observed in addition, that the form of the article hit prevails almost
always (the form hid is very rarely found) before the softened, or, as it is called,
tlie ' mortified' s in all the cases of the three genders in which ind occurs before
vowels (e.^. in the Article); this is, however, to be compared with the fact,
that even the particle hid in composition (in the ancient Gaulish ande-) he-
comes hit before a softened or mortified s in the following word.]
P. 231. [Gen. sing, of the article, in]. *' In, aspirating, before tenues and
niedials; Ind before liquids, mortified consonants, and vowels. *****
Instead of the regular Ind the form INT also prevails before the mortified s, as
before at p. 55 [extract, supra, note {}^)~\, and here : hitsechtaigtha (gloss : "simu-
ationis"), Ml. 21*; fomam hitsommai (under a rich man's yoke), Ml. 27'^.]
^^ The difference between an tiasg and an tslat is only graphic, as it is pro-
nounced an tlat, and as in accurate writing in the Old Irish s is provided with a
dot or left out, not only in this case but also after vowels. — Zeuss, 63.
1*5 [ii. The t in the nom. sing. masc. of the Irish article has been since shown
to be due to the law, pursuant to which, in Old Irish, d becomes t before aspi-
rated s, an tiasg, in 0. Ir. intiasc^=Skn Old Celtic san(d)as=^scas, subsequently
in(l8hesc=intiasc.']
On Declension in Irish. 81
sonant has dropped oiF; consequently, in the gen. and nom. plur.
fern, na slaite, instead of nds slaite, in the nom. sing. masc. an
smth., the scholar, instead of an(t)s sruth; in the gen. plur. of both
genders na smth., na slat., instead of nan sruth^ nan slat; in the
dat. plur., dona srothahh, dona slataibh.
A third point in which Bopp's view undergoes a modification
through the Old Irish forms, is the explanation of th^3 nom. plur.
masc., which in the Modern Irish is formed as in the fem. in na
with h before vowek, and without alteration of the following con-
sonants. Bopp thence concludes that in the Celtic the article, like
the substantive, in the masc. plur. originally ended in as; conse-
quently, that na has been deformed out of anas; but tlie Old Irish
ind, or mwith an aspiration following, together with the fem.masc,
inna or na, show us that here also the masc. originally ended in a
vowel as in almost all the Indo-European languages ; consequently,
that the modern na owes its existence to an inorganic extension
of the accusative form, or fem. plur. form, as we can at once see
in the Old Irish neutral plural inna, which leaves the consonants
following unaffected.^^
With the exception of these three points, the old forms confirm
throughout Bopp's discovery, according to which the nomin.
sing, masc, the gen. sing., and the nom. pi. fem., from their very
origin ended in s; the gen. plur. in n; the gen. and dat. masc., and
nom. and dat. fem. sing., in vowels.
The finding of the neuter, which has disappeared without
leaving a trace in the New Celtic (an or a in the nominative and
accusative singular, and the plural like the genitive), and of the
accusative (replaced in the Modern Irish by the nominative), in
the Old Irish forms mzti (before consonants iti) in the masculine and
feminine singular, inna or na in the plural of all three genders, —
and in which we can plainly recognize the original ending -n in
the singular, and -s in the plural, — is an important enrichment
of Celtic grammar.
I hazard no supposition as to the relation of the old forms with
t, followed by nt, nd, nn, to the new with a and simple n; the
vowels of the endings can only be determined through a compa-
rison of the substantive-declension, to which we shall now
proceed.
The philologist recognizes at first sight, in the first order
{Ordo Prior) of Zeuss, a vocalic (or a consonantal changed into a
vocalic) declension, in the second order (Ordo Posterior), con-
sonantal stems ; among the latter, the masculine and the feminine
J^ [See the author's further observations upon this subject, in his paper " On
the Article in Modern Irish", p. 106.]
III. 6
82 Celtic Studies.
n-stems and nouns of relationship in -thir (= Sanskrit -tar) being
especially evident, as liad been already recognized and put forward
by Pictet and Bopp. On tbe other hand, I cannot, from external
and internal grounds, agree with both these masters in the
distribution of the vocalic-stems.
If, for example, we compare the first paradigm or table of
Zeuss with the second, his remark, that the first is external, and
the second internal inflexion, is at once shown to be incorrect.
We have only to take, instead of ball, a word with e — as, for
example, /er, man — in order to at once see that the declension of
cele (companion) does not at all difier in the main from that of
fer, except that m the former a vowel preceded the dropped ofi*
ending, in the latter a consonant. The vowel of the original pe-
nultimate undergoes in both the same changes : nom. and ace. sing,
and gen. plur. cele, like fer, gen. and voc. sing, and nom. plur. cell,
2LsJir, dat. sing, celiu a,s Jiur, ace. plur. celiu asjiru: it is only in the
dative plural that a slight difference occurs between celib and
feraib. In short, I. is only a variety of II., and both are related
to one another, like the Gothic harjis or hairdeis to Jlsks. Let
us, therefore, assume for a moment that I. contains ya-stems, II.,
a-stems; there remain for III. u and ^-stems. But a similar
relation to that between I. and II. also occurs in the feminine
between IV. and V., and the differences in the paradigm between
tuare and rainne in the genitive singular, tuari and ranna in
the nom. and ace. plur., are compensated by the secondary forms
of the fifth, which we find under the examples gen. sing, -a
and -0, nom. and ace. plur. -e and -^. We could here also assume
in the fourth yd-stems, in the fifth a-stems, and have only to
determine then what has become of the i or z-stems, in order
to remove the objection which could be raised upon external
grounds against such a division; for, if feminine w-stems are
wanting, there is nothing remarkable in the circumstance. We
shall again find the feminine i-stems under V. ; the z-stems have,
however, either become ya or i-stems. We find many stems,
originally consonantal, changed into III. (exactly as in Latin in
the 2-declension) : e.g., dis, 6is (aetas) = Sanskrit dyus, gen. aisso,
desa.^^ The feminine nem}^ (caelum) = Sanskrit nabhas, gen. nime,
'® [iii. It is impossible to equate dis with dyris^ final s being never retained in
Irish, not even in the ns- stems.]
'^ [iv. Nem (also nim) was a fern, t-stem — not an a-stem— as we see from the
Old Irish gen. plur. nime : —
Sen a Christ mo labrad
a choimdiu secht nime.
" Bless, Christ, my utterance,
O Lord of seven heavens !"
Oingus cele D^."]
On Declension in Irish. 83
according to V., reminds us of the Slavic forms mentioned in tlie
Zeitsclirift fiir vergleicliende Spracliforschung, iv. 342: voda=:
Sanskrit udan, gora = opoc, tima = Sanskrit tamas. If, accordingly,
we designate tKe five series set up by Zeuss as : I. b. masculine and
neutral ?/a-stems ; I. a. masculine and neutral a-stems ; II. mascu-
line and neutral i and w-stems ; III. h. feminine ?/a-stems ; III. a.
feminine a and z-stems, we shall find that this classification will
receive an external confirmation by a consideration of the words
and sufiixes which belong to the individual classes.
Most loan-words harmonize, in the most strikingly accurate
manner, with their types in the declensions. Compare, for ex-
ample the a-stems: /eZsw6=philosophus, oV=aurum,^" angel=
angelus, apstoZ= apostolus, ^j9scc>p = episcopus,yiaZ= velum, idol
m,=idolum, ifurnn='m£eTimm., saZm =psalmus, teinpulzzitem-
plum, together with the genitive digaimzr-ddgammi, metir =
metri; the a-stems: (aZmsm?^^ rreleemosyna, epistil fzneipistola)
persan =-peisonsi, riagol riagul=Yegula, pianz=-pcena, fedb=z
vidua (no doubt borrowed ?) liter =z]itera, sillab=: sjllahsi ; those in
ia and id: the masculine notaire^ rectaire, tablaire, the feminine
fellsube=i^hilosoiphisL; those in i: the masculine faith =zY2ites;
in u: the masculine /er's= versus, sens = sensus, spirut (gen.
spirito, spiruto) = s^intus. Proper names follow the same rule,
such as rom, fem.=:Roma, romdn, mas. = Romanus, tit= titus,
<mm^/ie = Timotheus, grec — Gia^cus, although I. a. has here
embraced rather more, as the dat. aetieus, gen. adim, Socrait^
Aristotil, show.
The forms of the cognate languages afibrd a further confirma-
tion, and here and there also traditional Gaulish words. Fer (stem
Jlra) corresponds to the Sanskrit vira still more accurately than
the Latin vir and Gothic vair (instead of vir stem vird) f^ the ad-
jective /zV to the Latin verus (compare n^"^=: Latin rex) ; din den
to the Latin wins; marb to the Latin mortuus (b = tv)f*fescor
fescar, masc. the Lithuanian vakaras, Latin vesper; bran, raven, to
the Slavonian vraww, Lithuanian 'yar'wos (Sanskrit varna) ; run fern,
to the Gothic runa; dia masc, the anomaly of which is only appa-
rent, to the Latin Deus (instead of Deus = Sanskrit deva) ; fere
fem. probably to the Greek opyri ; tuath femf. to the Oscan tovto,
^ '" [v. or is even found vdth the n of the neuter termination in the nom. sing.
or iiglan (pure gold), where or h is exactly the Greek avpov.']
^' [vi. Kecte almsan : episdlis right — the iin the last syllable heing due to pro-
gressive assimilation — a phenomenon which Irish exhibits in common with
Finnish and Magyar.]
^^ The Lithuanian form wyras, and the rarity of the Latin i, instead of a, before
r, speaks more in favour of vtra than of vara.
*' [vii. Eect^ ri=Gaulish rix, a ^--stem.]
** [viii. The 6 in ?nar6, now viarhh, is a v. marb=*marva, Welsh, marw.']
6 B
84 Celtic Studies.
Umbrian toto; aniiriyfem.., from wliicli several cases are formed
according to III. a. (Zeitschrift f. vergl. Sp. vi. 213), and which
corresponds in these to the Latin anima; Idn to the Latin plenus
(see supra) ; colum to the Latin columba;^^ ardd, no doubt, to the
Latin arduus; nu^^ to the Latin wovws = Sanskrit nava, on the
other hand, nue is related to the Gothic niujis = Sa.n.skiit navy a;
aile to the Latin alius; consequently we may refer uile to
Gothic alls by assimilation from Ij: the neuter cride represents
exactly the Sanskrit hrdaya (less accurately the Greek icapSm),
trede neut. (the Trinity) the Sanskrit tritaya; muir shows itself by
the GauHsh mori- to be an z-stem, which, notwithstanding small
deviations, the Latin mare^ Slav, more^ Gothic marei, confirm ;
mug (servus) appears to be identical with the Gothic magus
(puer), and consequently an w-stem; fid neut. (arbor) re-
sembles the Old Saxon widu, Anglo-Saxon wudu, Old High
German witu (Old Norse masc. vi^r), and besides has been
determined by the Gaulish vidu to be a w-stem, like cath
(pugna), bith (mundus) by the Gaulish catu-, hitu-; the fem. set
(dat. seit, pi. seuit) via = Gothic sin^s, like det (dat. deit =
Lat. dens), fluctuates between i- and a consonantal declension;
finally the double forms ben and ban (mulier) may be explained
either from* ^uina^^ ( = Gothic qvino) and *gvano ( = Greek yuvrj,
Boeot. f3ava) or from *gvani (= Sanskrit^'ani) and *gvana (exactly
as the Slav, zena can have been formed from zana or zina).
But if we considered these agreements as merely accidental, so
much the more would the identity of the sufliixes gain in authority.
The adjectives come almost without exception under the classes I.
a. and b. in masc. and neut. HI. a, and b. in femin., consequently
to a- and yd-stems, which in all the Indo-European languages are
most numerous. The superlatives end in -em, of which I have
found no inflexions in Zeuss, and are probably derived from ima,
or am, certainly from -ama, which is inflected according to I. a.
Of the adjectives the fem. abstracts in -0 are very generally
formed according to HI. 5., which corresponds to the Sanskrit ?/«,
Lat. -ia, Greek -m, Old High Germ, -z. Middle High German -e^
e.g., amprome (improbitas) from amprom, sulbaire (eloquentia)
from sulber, doire (miseria) from doir, soire (nobilitas) from
soir, firinne (justitia) £Tom. firian, luinde, bitterness, from lond,
ndibe (sanctitas) from noib, etc. Among the masc. in -e (I.
b.) the words in -ire or -aire, corresponding to the Slav, -art,
** [ix. Colum (recte colomb), gen. coluimb, is a masc. a-stem, not fem. like
colwnba.']
26 [x. Recte nua. The nom. plur. of s€t (see below) has the masc. article in
Zeuss, p. 237.]
' CAll words to which an asterisk is prefixed are hypothetical.]
On Declension in Irish. 85
as echire, echaire (mulio), and many loan-words (from the Lat.
-arius) single themselves out; among the adjectives those in -de
= Sanskrit -tya, only of wider usage, e.g. nemde (coelestis), tal-
mande (terrestris),coZ?2f(ie(camalis),etc. ; the Sanskrit -taya occurs
in the numeral adjectives dede., trede corresponding also in gender
to the Sanskrit tritaya, catushtaya. We must, therefore, accord-
ingly compare the modern fem. in -mhuin, as produced from the
older -maine, not with the Sanskrit neuter in -man, but with the
Latin fem. in -monia (seachmuin = sechtmaine, consequently not
accurately expressing the Lat. septimand), especially as even the
Old Irish sometimes exhibits retrenchment, as testemin, festimin
stands by the side of the Lat. testimonium, the neut. aill by
that of the mas. aile = alius.
The verbal substantives, which take the place of the infinitive,
are particularly interesting. Those of them that apparently
contain the naked root, as cumang (posse, potentia), fulang
(tolerare), may be recognized by their declension according to
I. a., as a-stems, to which the Sanskrit gerund in -am, and the
locative in -e, with which the Indian grammarians clothe the
roots, are parallel. Pictet (De I'affinite des Langues Celtiques
avec le Sanskrit, p. 161) compares the infinitive in t, th,
d, dh, with the Sanskrit -turn; rather with the Slavonic
'ti, because of the form tinn; we find among the suffixes
in Pictet, the Irish adh compared with the Sanskrit -atliu.
We shall become acquainted with tinn further on under
consonantal declension; the Old Irish supplies us information
about the other forms. Here -ad and -ud follow the second kind
of inflexion, -t the third ; we are consequently the more entitled
to presuppose in those i/-stems (like the Lat. -tus, from which the
supine, Sanskrit -tu, from which the infinitive and gerund -turn,
'tvd)f as, according to the latest statements of Schleicher (Bei-
trage, I. 27), even the Slavonic infinitive in -ti belongs to this
formation; on the other hand, the feminine forms in -t (ac-
cording to III. a.) are not to be separated from the feminine ab-
stracts in Sanskrit -ti, Greek -tI (o-it), Lat. -ti (si), Gothic -ti^ pi,
di. The feminine in -dl (III. a.) remind us of the peculiar
Slavonic participles in -lit; but it would be difficult to decide
whether -a or -i has dropped ofi" in them. The feminine in -em
are a-stems, which correspond to the Greek verbal-nouns in -fir]-,
the masculine in -am, -om,, -um, remain obscure to me. Finally,
-ent, -end, according to 1. a., I consider to be borrowed, a suppo-
sition to which the forms legend, scrihend, already point. The
masculine in -id, gen. -ada, in which Zeuss, p. 766, suspected
an original -at, also deserves to be mentioned; the proper
stem-ending is -ati, absolutely like the Sanskrit -ti, Greek tl (in
86 Celtic Studies.
/lavTig), only differently employed, as it appears in the Irish, as a
taddhita suffix.^ The part. perf. pass, appears to make the only
exception to tliis regular correspondence with the cognate lan-
guages : they do not end in -th or -d, according to I. a., as the
analogy with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Gothic would lead
to, but in -the, according to I. b. ; but the original form still lies
before us in the preterite passive of the impersonal conjugation
(sing, -d, plur. -tha) ; we have consequently to distinguish in the
ordinary form an addition {-ya or -aya) like as in the Old Welsh
-etic. On the other hand, the part. fut. pass, -thi, properly -tin,
accurately links itself to the Sanskrit -tavya, Greek -tIoq (Lat.
-tivus).
If, finally, we compare the forms of the article, which, accord-
ing to Bopp's view, also belong to an a-stem, and exactly agree
with an a-stem in the distinguishing cases, gen. sing, and nom. pi.
masc, there will be found sufficient external grounds to justify
our division. We shall now pass to the inner characteristics
which exist in the Irish phonetic relations, in order to develope
and explain, as far as possible, the individual forms.
The Irish vocal system exhibits two \e,rj close points of con-
tact with the German, the umlaut or obscuring of an a by i
and w, and the fracture of an i and u by a. In reference to the
first, it is particularly remarkable that the three kinds of assimi-
lation of the a before i and ?/, which we generally find separated
in different languages and language-periods (complete assimilation
as in the Sanskrit giri and guru, diphthongation as in the Zend,
pairi and pauru, umlaut proper as in the Old Norse hendi and
hand), appear here side by side ; thus the well-known particle ar-
is written air-, ir-, er- [and aur-'] ; the accusative plural of ball, at
one time bullu, at another baullu; rolaumur (audeo) also rolomur.
As umlauts of a there consequently occur: — 1, ai or i, seldomer
e; 2, «w or u, seldomer o; inversely i changes into e, o into u, under
the influence of an a following, as in the Old High German ; thus,
for example, in the gen. feda, moga fromjld, mug. We may see
how far the last law has extended itself, from the fact that it has
even invaded foreign names, as e^aZ=Itaha; but when Zeuss
ascribes the same influence to a succeeding o and u, it should be
considered that o and a often interchange, as in the gen. etha or
etho from ith, where the e owes its origin rather to the a than to
the 0; but, on the other hand, o and e arise from simple weaken-
ing — namely, before double consonants, so probably also in felsuh
= philosophus.^^ We can just as little recognize an umlaut of the
2^ [So the Indian grammarians call the secondary suflixes.]
29 [xi. Here Zeuss seems right and Ebel wrong. Thus for the breaking of
i into ehy :
On Declension in Irish. 87
e into i, for wliere we have reason to consider e as primitive, there
is produced by a succeeding i or u, not i or m, but ei or eu, for
example, in tlie plural geinti (gentes) in the dat. neurt, from nert
(virtus, valor). ^" Zeuss has proceeded in a one-sided manner, inas-
much as he has everywhere taken the vowel which appears in
the nominative as the primitive one ; while, in cases like wim^,
giun, it is rather the i changed into ^ by a that again appears. On
the other hand, it must be admitted that umlaut may produce an
e not derived from i, as in gen. rainne from rann (pars). Accord-
ing to this, the rule for the Old Irish (we pass over here the vowel
changes in the Modern Irish, and slight deviations, such as oi for
a^, ea,eo^ for ao) may be expressed somewhat as follows : under the
influence of a succeeding a, i changes itself into e, u into o; under
that of a succeeding i (exceptionally also an e), a into i or ia
(or e), e into ei, u into w^, o into oi; finally, under that of a suc-
ceeding w, a into u or au (or o), i into zw, e into eu. It is unne-
cessary to observe that the factor very often disappears, and the
fact remains, so that, just as in German, we can determine by
the vowel-changes in the stem the vowel of the ending, a cir-
cumstance of so much the more importance, as will soon appear,
because, even in its oldest form, it is much more weakened in
the auslauts than, for instance, the Gotliic.
If we apply the rule just given to determine the vowels of
these endings, we obtain, in the first instance, for the masculine
and neuter, according to I., the following endings : —
Sing. Nom. -{a)s, -(ji)n . . Plur. -e, -d
Ace. >-{a)n . . . -«, -a
Gen. -i . . . ^an
Dat. -u . . . -abis^^
Examples: ball (membrum) hall, baill, baull or hull, haill
hallaih or ballib; fer (vir), fer, fir, fiur, fir, firu, fer, feraih;
Bretan=Brito (Book of Armagh) ; lenomnaib (lituris), Zeuss, 739, compare
Lat. lino ; lebor from liber (Zeuss, 744) ; senod (Cormac), from st/nodus (y=i)
cenel=ceneth(o)1^01d Welsh centtol.
And for the breaking oil into e by u: — treb?m from tn'btmus (Zeuss, 198), screpwl
(Cormac) from scr«pMlum, cercol (Zeuss, 594) from c/rcwlus. But the last instance
is perhaps an example of the power of o; and as to screpul {scripul in Zeuss), we
have unfortunately no MS. of Cormac in which the spelhng can be relied on.]
^*^ [xii. E seems changed into i by a succeeding i in the following instances ; —
Aristotd (gen. sing.), Zeuss, 887, magisttr, nom. pi. of magister, Zeuss, 1057,
heritic (=haeretici) Zeuss, 1055.]
^' [xiii. Eegarding the remarks in notes 13 and 29, the hypothetical endings
for the masc. and neut. may be set down as follows:
Sing. nom. . . . os, on Plur. i, a
ace. . . . on us, a
dat. . . . u dbo (aho ?)
gen. . . . i (in
and these agree with the Gaulish endings of the a-declension, so far as they
have been established.]
88 Celtic Studies.
neuter, imned (tribulatio), pi. imnetha imneda. We recognize
here distinctly tlie a-stem halla^ fera instead oi fira^ imnetha
instead of imnitha ; fira harmonizes in a remarkably beautiful
manner witb the Gothic and Latin stem vira (for vair indicates
a previous short ^) in opposition to the Sanskrit vira. The
feminine a-stems lead back to : —
Sing. Nom. -a .
Plur. -ds
Ace. -an .
-ds
Gen. -e{s) or -{a)s .
-an
Dat. -i or e
/I - _\ .. • .
-abis
Examples : nem (heaven), nem, nime, nim (stem nimd, hence
the nom. nim is still found singly) ; delb (effigies), delbj delbe^
deilb, plur. delbce (instead of delba), gen. delb, dat. delbaib, with
primitive e, therefore it is in the dative not dilb, but deilb. The
masculine stems, according to III., exhibit, in the immediately
preceding stage approximately the following forms : —
Sing. Nom. (-is or -us)
Ace. {-in or -wi)
Gen. d(s) or d(^s)
Dat. u?OT-i?
Plur. -d{s), -e(s), t(s)
-a -i
-e(n)
-ibis Q-abis ?)
Examples: nom. denmid (doer) instead of denmadis, gen.
denmada; nom. bith (world), dat. biuth instead of bithu ; gnim
(action) ace. plur. gnimu; aitribthid (possessor), gen. aitrebtliado,
nom. ace. plur. aitribtliidi.
It is easily seen that the forms which may be most readily-
linked, do not admit, in any way, of a direct comparison with
the primitive forms, as the Gothic, to a certain extent, do, but
still require an intermediate stage to connect them. A balli
ballu, or ballui, must necessarily have preceded balli, balluy
assumed from baill, baull, a nimd the nima, deduced from neniy
a fir us (oT firun?) the^m changed into firu, afirdn, the hypo-
thetical ;?ra?i in the gen. pi. In short, the oldest historical forms
of the Irish, in regard to the conservation of the auslaut, stand, at
most, and even scarcely, upon a level with the New High
German,-^ as the simple comparison of the Irish and the German
ball may show : —
c;«^ (Irish,
Si°&- -^German,
Nom. ball, Ace. ball,
Gen. baill,
Dat. baull.
„ ball, „ ball.
„ ball(e)s,
„ ball(e>
„ baill, „ bauilu,
„ ball,
„ ballaib.
„ balle, „ bUlle,
„ bUUe,
„ bkllen.
(German,
We find that long vowels have disappeared in the auslaut
often even with succeeding consonants ; equally so, short vowels,
with succeeding s; only long vowels before s have presei-ved
32 [xiv. Ebel would not now gay this. See hia paper infra " On the so-called
prosthetic n", p. 108.]
On Declension in Irish. 89
themselves in the shortening: [forms such as cele (socius), conse-
quently presuppose either a celias, celeas, with a fallen off end-
syllable, or a celes with a shortening of the vowel before the
fallen off s; we shall more correctly explain firu from Jirus
than from jflrim, as we everywhere [except in the article and
teo7'a ri] see that the long vowel in the genitive plural has dis-
appeared along with the w]. We could not, in the midst of
such mutilation of the original endings, venture to think of any-
thing like a satisfactory development of the casee-ndings, were
it not that fortunately the above-mentioned law for the vocalism,
and the changing of the consonants between the article and sub-
stantive, puts into our hands a means of discovery.
The end-consonants, except m and r, have evidently all dis-
appeared ; m is changed, according to rule, into w, only traces of
which have, nevertheless, been preserved f^ s no longer occurs at
the end ; ^,which appears in its place in the Old Irish as int, and in
the Modern Irish an t, shows us that it has only disappeared in the
immediately preceding period, only after the dropping out of the
short vowel. 27ie Gaedlielic has, consequently, become harder than
the Gothic, in so far that, besides s and r, it also suffered an n in
its auslaut, probably derived, however, from m, a7id not from a
primitive n.^* Of these three consonants, s was the first which
dropped off, for it does not appear in any declension or conjuga-
tion-ending ; not even in the article, where, however, its former
existence is betrayed by the t in the nom. int ant, and by the
conservation of the original anlaut after the form inna na; the
second that dropped off was the n derived from m, which is still
visible at least in the article in the ace. inn, and in gen. plur.
INNAN nan (besides here and there also, e.g. in teora ngutte,
Zeuss. 310) ; r has preserved itself to the present day in the no
minative athir athair (pater).
The mutilations bf the auslaut appear to have taken place in
this wise ; in the first place the short vowels in the auslaut and
before consonants were dropped, the long ones in the auslaut
shortened, then (or also contemporaneously, a supposition to
which the Lat. -um, instead of -wm, would lead us) the long
vowel before n shortened, hereupon s dropped, finally the long
vowel was again shortened, and the short vowel together with n
dropped. From the primitive Gaedhelic to the Gaedhelic of the
oldest monuments, we would have, consequently, to presuppose
three or four periods, which may be represented by an example,
somewhat in the following manner : —
'^ [xiv. See the last mentioned paper.]
^' [See on this passage the author's paper on "The so-called prosthetic n,
90 Celtic Studies.
Primitive period. Pre-historic period. Historic period.
Sing. Nom. . . . ballas, balls, ball.
Ace ballan, balln, ball.
Gen balll, balli, bailL
Dat ballui, ballu, baull.
(baUii ?)
Plur. Nona. . . . balli, balli, baill.
Ace ballus, ballu, baullu.
Gen ballan, ballan, ball.
Dat ballabis, ball(a)bis, ball(a)ib.
Still later weakenings of the auslaut sometimes occur, as the
Old Gaedhelic shows in neut. aill from aile (similar to the Old
Latin alid) ; the Old Kymric especially distinguishes itself from
the Gaedhelic by greater weakenings, e. g. as all (ahus) and oil
(omnis), instead of theGaedheUc aile andzwYe. The adjective in the
Welsh exhibits an interesting difference, inasmuch as here the
change of i and u into e and o first takes place in the feminine,
hence a fem. gwen, cron is opposed to the mas. gwyn (albus) crwn
(rotundus). We may consequently presume that in the Welsh
the fracture was only introduced when the shoit end-vowels were
thrown off, consequently crunnas crunnd were already become
crunn(s) crunna, whilst, in the GaedheUc, the falhng off only fol-
lowed the introduction of the fracture.
Now only are we in a position to attempt an explanation of
the endings ; but, in consequence of the extremely difficult i- and
w-stems, we shall begin with the declension of the consonantal
stems. We find in Zeuss five classes (not exactly in the most
convenient order), of which I. and II. contain w-stems. III. and
V. r-stems, IV. (i-stems f^ of these d appears to have arisen out of ^
The inflexion is most regular in the masculine-feminine w-stems
(II.), and in the masculine c/-stems (IV.). Both subdivide them-
selves according to the vowel of the genitive into two divisions,
in which we recognize, according to the phonetic laws of the Irish,
stems with a and with i; those" in -man may be compared with
the Sanskrit -man, -iman, -van, and with the Greek -^uov (compare
hritliem judge and i)yefiu)v) ; those in -tin or -sin are, in a similar
way, as in the Umbrian and Oscan, shortened from -tian, which
again appears in the nom. -tiu, and consequently express the Lat.
-tio, -tionis, with, which they also agree in gender ; the infinitive use
of these abstracts (comp. Zeuss, 4G2) explains the infinitives in
-tinn, -sinn of the present language, which consequently do not
at all directly agree with those in -t and -dli; probably a similar
3^ [xv. Zeuss' series V. contains c-stems (or rather t-stems, which, in the
oblique cases, go over to the c-declension), and under his fourth series he has
put (/-stems, < stems, and anf-stems. Among his irregular nouns he gives n,
gen. rig^ the sole example of an Irish ^-stem. Mi: (a month) gen. mis, is a
ns-stem. So were the comparatives in iu, Sanskrit iydiis, though undeclined in
the oldest Irish.]
On Declension in Irish. 91
contraction of the stem lies at the basis of those in -^W, because in
the nominative along with ogi (hospes), fill (poeta), tene (ignis),
the fuller form coimdiu (dominus) shows itself. Analysis yields
the common endings : —
Sing. Nom. (long vowel) . . . Plur. -is
Ac. -in (_-en) . . . -as
Gen. -as . . . . -an iran)
Dat. -i . . . . -abis
Which explain themselves without difficulty. The length in
the accusative plural is remarkable ; it is proved by anmana (ani-
m3is), Jileda (poetas). As a change into the vowel-declension (like
in the Latin -Ss,-eis, -is) in consequence of the a, in opposition to
the -u or -^, which alone occurs in masc. vocalic stems, is not to be
thought of, this -a must be either an inorganic lengthening, or -as
has been produced from -ans, which has been already surmised
to be the original ending of the accusative plural (Zeitschrift
f V. Sprachforschung I. 291, V. 60); the latter is no doubt the
true explanation. Among the other endings, -as exhibits the pe-
culiar tones of the Gaedhelic vocalismus, whilst, for, instance, the
Greek, Latin, and Gothic agree in the weakening of the a in the
genitive -og, -us, -is, -is, and in the Gothic even the nom. plur. -as
remains pure, the Gaedhelic, on the other hand, in direct anti-
thesis to the Gothic, has retained the genitive pure, — hence men-
man, noiden, druad, coimded, instead of menmanas, noidinas,
druadas, coimdidas, and has weakened the nom. plur. to -is (or -es
like Greek -e^ ?) consequently forming anmin, aisndisin, druid,
flid. The accusative singular with its -in or (^-en) may be compared
with the Lat. -em, — in the Zend, even with a-stems, em, — hence
menmain (for which also menmuin and menmin), airitin, torhataid
or -tid, coimdid. The genitive plural has naturally, in the first
instance, shortened its -an to an, and then dropped it ; the dative
singular may, no doubt, be refeiTed as in the Greek and Gothic to
the original locative. By the dropping off of the endings and
the influence of the end-vowels, the gen. sing, and plur. on the
one side, and the ace. and dat. sing, and nom. plur. on the other,
must have become alike in sound. The dat. plur. took up a copu-
lative vowel, as in the Latin and Gothic, an a, which by the influ-
ence of the dropped i has become ai or i; before this -aib, -ih syn-
cope frequently occurred as before the -a of the accusative plural,
e.g. in traigthib (pedibus) always as it appears in the feminines in
-tiu, the i of which, however, had acted upon the succeeding vowel ;
hence dat. -tnib, ace. -tnea or tne. Zeuss' supposition of an accu-
sative plural *druida, for which we might expect ^druada,
appears, however, to be erroneous.^^ We meet with various forms
'^ [xvi. Druide is the acc. pi. in tlie Liber Hyninoruin. This may perhaps
92 Celtic Studies.
in the nom. sing, of a?i stems e.g.: masc. menme (mens), masc.
brithem (judex) fern, amm (anima), fem. talam (terra); of the
feminine m-stems passing into m, sometimes weakened into -u; of
tlie masc. ad-stems as a rule weakened to -u, and in tenge (lingua)
to e; of -id generally -^, also, however, -iu in coimdiu (Dominus),
-u in dinu (agna), and the adjective hihdu (guilty), -e in tene
(ignis), gen. tened^ stem tenid (instead of tanid as the Kymric
tan shows) ; no ending in traig (pes). The form druiiJi (druida),^'
from the stem druad, appears to depend upon the same transition
into the i- declension as Lat. canis, juvenis, from the stem caw,
juven; for druith refers back to *druadis. According to the
analogy of the Sanskrit, the aw-stems ought to form the nom.
-a, which, in the first instance weakened to a, then fell off;
brithem^ anim., are, consequently, forms perfectly in accordance
with rule. The preservation of the vowel in menme^ weakened,
however, to e, appears to have been caused by the double con-
sonants (as, perhaps, also in the gen. pi. athre, from athir, see
further on). The -iu of the m-stems has arisen from the primi-
tive -id (by -ia or through iu; the Lat. -io, Umbrian -iu speaks
in favour of the latter), the u having been retained probably
by means of the preceding vowel as in the dative celiu, as
opposed to baull. The d- or ^ stems took originally, as in the
Lat. and Greek an s, lengthened the vowel before it as com-
pensation for the t, and retained the shortened vowel after
the dropping off of the s; e. g. *domnats (domnds) *domnus,
*dom7iu, domnu (profunditas). Or -ad was originally long, as
contractions are often found in the Gaedhelic, for example, in
the adjectives in -ach = Kymric auc, awe (i. e. dc)? In
coimdid, together with coimdiu, a contraction of the stem may be
assumed as the Welsh masc. in -iat (-iad, pi. -ieid), given by
Zeuss (p. 806) comes very near. Guiliat (qui videt) appears nearly
to correspond to the Gaedhelic y^Zt'c?,^^ the nom.y^2^ would, conse-
quently, be contracted £vom. jfiliu, for which the dative duini toge-
ther with duiniu affords an analogy.^ Traig shows itself to be
a ^stem by Welsh troet, pi. tract; Cornish troys, pi. troyes,
treys; Armoric troad, pi. treid; but the nom. sing, traig and
have arisen, by progressive umlaut, from *druadi, if drui (like hrdthair) have
passed over to the z-declension. The ace. pi. brdithre occurs in the epilogue to
the Felire (609).]
37 [xvii. Ebel has here been misled by Zeuss : druith is the nom. dual^ not the
nom. singular, which must have been drui {^=*drua(d)-s.']
3* [See "Additions to the Article on Declension", p. 110].
3^ Zeuss, 755, considers the rfas primitive, and compares the Kymric -ed, -id, p.
803 ; but, in my opinion, the masculine in -id ought rather to be compared with
the Gaedhelic in -id, -aid, gen. -ada, and the Kymric -d (now -dd) ; although
ancient, it is not primitive (^compare Lat. Inpid, Greek tXirid, koovO, Zeitschr.
f. V. Sp. iv., 325, 332).
r
On Declension in Irish 93
cus. plur. traigid are difficult to explain : tlie best way is, no
doubt, by the assumption of a neuter (Zeuss, 274), by wbicli the
want of the ending would be justified; but the i in traigid is re-
markable : we should have expected *traigidd, *traigeda, traiged.
Deviations of a different kind will be treated of hereafter ; as re-
gards cu (canis), whereof only the comp. banchu (bitch), and the
derivative conde (caninus), occur in Zeuss, we may ascribe to
the Old Irish the forms: ace. cuin, gen. con, dat. cuin ; plur. nom.
cuin, ac. cona, gen. con, dat. conaih.^'^ The neutral w-stems (I.) all de-
rived with the suffix -man deviate from the anticipated scheme : —
Sing. Nom. and Ace. -m . . Plur. -7nan (from -mand, mana)
Gen. *-man . . -man
Dat. *-main . . -manaib
Independent of shght fluctuations between a and e (e.g. nom.
plur. ingramman, gen. ingremmen) in the gen. and dat. sing., the
dative exhibits an exceptional m instead of n: anmim, anmairn
(nomini), which appears to have arisen from assimilation ; the gen.
anma, anmae, anme, has dropped the n. The remaining forms
are formed in a perfectly normal manner, but the nom. sing,
appears to have weakened the a of the original end -ma to i, be-
fore it fell off, in consequence of the continuous occurrence of
umlauts =:ai?2?n (nomen), beini (plaga), ingreim (persecutio),
ieidm (pestis), togairm (vocatio), senim (sonitiis).
The nouns of relationship in -thar (III.) contain the original
a of the nom. sing, weakened to i, either by the influence of the
liquids (Bopp, p. 7), or, as it appears to me more probable, be-
cause the a weakened to a should have dropped out in the third
period (as in balldu, ballan, ball); but this could not take place, in
consequence of the unpronounceable double consonant thence re-
sulting, and so at least the lightest vowel was chosen. The same
reason caused, no doubt, the retention of the vowel in the gen,
and dat. sing., the syncope of which was to be expected accord-
ing to the analogy of other languages and of the plural cases
(although a formation atharas, atliars, athar, athari, athir, would
not be impossible), and in the gen. plur. the i*etention of the end-
ing-vowel in its weakened form e;*^ at least, there is no reason to
assume for the Old Irish a transition into the i-declension which
to be sure would easily explain the form atJire, but which even
the Latin patrum rejected. In the dative plural, a, and not i, is
also used as a copulative vowel, as athraib shows,^^ and if braithrib
*" [xviii. Rather thus : aec. coin n, gen. con, dat. coin ; plur. nom. coin, ace.
cona, gen. con h, dat. conaib.]
*' [xix. This gen. plur. in e only occurs in athre, brdithre, and is certainly due
to a passage over to the i-deelension. Mdthair forms its gen. plur. regularly —
thus: mdthar n.]
*'* [xx. In Gaulish S was used as a copulative vowel, as is shown by mdtrSbo
(matribus), cited supra. Note 12, p. 79 ]
94 Celtic Studies.
occurs side by side with it, we must either view it as an inva-
sion of the secondary ^, or an indication of the early introduc-
tion into Irish of orthographical confusion. The nom. plur. is
not supported by evidence ; we cannot put it down otherwise than
as athir^ as Zeuss does. On the other hand, there is no evidence
to entitle us to assume with Zeuss an ending -u for the masc, as
we have no where detected, except in the nom. druith, a transi-
tion into the vocalic declension. We accordingly assume the
following genetic development: —
Primitive period
Pre-historic period.
Historic period.
Sing. Nom. . .
athar
athar
athir
Ace. . .
atharin
athirn
athir
Gen. . .
athras
athars
athar
Dat. . .
athri
athir
athir
Plur. Nom. . .
atharis
athirs
* athir
Ace. . .
athras
athra
* athra
Gen. . .
athran
athran
athre
Dat. . .
athrabis
athraibs
athraib
The addition of a determinative suffix already shows itself in the
Old Irish in some r-stems (V.) ; in the Modern Irish its action has
been felt over a much wider circuit, and has even penetrated the
nouns of relationship.*^ Unfortunately, too few forms of this class
have been preserved to us to give a complete idea of the declen-
sion, nevertheless we see from the existing ones of catliir (oppi-
dum) : —
Sing. . . . cathir, cathraig, cathrach, cathir.
Plnr. . . . cathraig.
— at least so much clearly, that these words, to which nathir (na-
trix) likewise belongs, with this suffix also followed a consonantal
declension. Bopp's conj ecture, adopted by Kuhn also, in his review
(observation 15), that this ch (g) represents an original k, is now
completely justified by the Irish phonetic law, according to wliich
the tenuis between vowels changes into the aspirata (fluctuating
into media) ; but to his comparison of the Gothic hrothrahans
and the Sanskrit -aka may be added the still more apt one of the
Greek -k in yuvjj yvvaiKOQ, like the opposite employment of the
<? in Latin, senex, senectus, along with senis (compare the essay of
Curtius on individualizing suffixes in Zeit. f. v. Sp. Bd. iv.)
The dative cathir, no doubt, likewise rests upon a similar muti-
*' [xxi. This "determinative suflix" is a dream. The Old Irish nouns to
which Ebel alludes (though t-stems in the nom. sing.), have, hke ywrj, passed
over to the c-declension in the oblique cases. There are, of course, c-stems in all
cases. Thus tethra, gen. tethrach (a scald-crow), is the Greek rsTpa^, gen.
rkvpaKOQ. The gen., dat., and ace. pi. of cathair may be set down with certainty
as cathrach n, cathrachaib, cathracha^ respectively ; for huasalathrach (patriarch-
arum) occurs in St. Patrick's hymn {Liber Hymnorum), and huasalathrachaib
(patriarchis) in Zeuss, p. 827 (the nom. sing, is huasalathair, cf. Ang--Sax. heah-
foedher^ and coercha (sheep, ace. pi.) for cderacha, in St. Brogan's hymn, v. 33.]
On Declension in Irish. 95
latlon, as is frequently found among tlie w-stems, and should
not have been placed by Zeuss in the paradigm; the normal
form would be cathrich or cathraich, in the plur. ace. cathraclia,
gen. cathrach, dat. cathracliaib may be expected.
In its most ancient stage the Gaedhelic, consequently, harmon-
izes with the classic languages by the conservation of the conso-
nant declension of the ^-, w-, and r-stems ; it even exceeds the
Latin in the conservation of the purity of the nom. ace. and gen.
plur. ; on the other hand it associates itself to the Gothic by the
passage of the s-stems into the vocalic declension, which takes place
as in the Slavonic languages in two ways : by an addition in dis,
disa, contrasting with the Sanskrit dyus; by a loss in nem (nima)
in contrast to the Sanskrit nabhas, with a change of gender, as
in the Slavonic tima, against the Sanskrit tamas.
According to what has been said above, the vocalic declension
includes masculine and neutral a-, ^-, and i^-stems, feminine d-
and i' (t-) stems ; feminine w-stems are wanting, as in the Lithu-
anian.
We have already carried back the inflexions of the masculine
a-stems to the oldest attainable Celtic forms. The most of them
scarcely require an observation. The nom. sing, -as, -a, -an, in-
stead of -am, gen. plur. -dn instead of -dm, agree exactly with the
Sanskrit ; the dative plural -abis presupposes a more ancient pho-
netic condition than we find preserved either in the Sanskrit in-
strumental -dis or in the dative -ebliyas, and which is easiest
explained from the instrumental (primitive form -abJiis), for
the dative form -abhyas would have led (through -abias -abeas,
or through -abis -abi, through -ahes -abe) to -abe or -aibi}^ (The
-ai in -aib is not a diphthong but umlaut, as the secondary form
lb shows ; it is, consequently, not comparable with the Sanskrit
-^in -ebhyas). The dat. sing, -ui (or u? undoubtedly formed out
oi-ui) and the ace. plur. -us agree with the Lithuanian and Slavo-
nian, being in the former -ui and -us, and in the latter -u and -y;
the gen. sing, and nom. plur. -i agree with the Latin (besides
the dat., Latin -d from -oi = Oscan -ui). In the nominative plural
the pronominal ending (Sanskrit-^ = primitive -a^, Lithuanian -«^,
Gothic -ai, Greek oi, Latin z, older form -ei, Slavonian -i), has,
consequently, penetrated into the substantive declension in the
Celtic also, as it does every where except in the Sanskrit, Gothic,
Umbrian, and Oscan, and indfir (pronounced indir) from inmfiri
corresponds exactly with illi viri; this i has, consequently, been
formed out of -az or -ei. On the other hand, in the genitive singular,
the most difiicult form, the -i corresponds to the Latin -i, which, as
♦* ["xxii. See note 12, p. 79.]
96 Celtic Studies.
is well known, is written not -e^, but -^ in Lucilius, and in S. C de
Bacc, an important circumstance for the correct explanation of
the Latin form ; as for the rest, the explanation is easier in the Irish
than in the Latin. Of the primitive ending = Sanskrit as^«, not only
must y, which has everywhere fallen away, but also a vowel-
flanked s have disappeared in the Irish (Zeuss, 60, 63) ; there, con-
sequently, ensued -ii (as in z^/i = Kymric, iot^ tcc = Kymric iacc)
which naturally fused immediately into i; it only remains doubtful
whether this -a also belongs to the Kymric or exclusively to the
GaedheHc.*^ The agreement of both forms with the Latin is, no
doubt, the chief reason why the words borrowed from the Latin
have mostly preserved, in so strikingly true a manner, the declen-
sion-type, and that transitions into this declension have only taken
place from the third Latin one ; — a change which the gen. -is in-
duced, as, for example : socrdit, in consequence of socratis (even
in the nom. preGept6h\ plur. preceptori, in consequence of pre-
eeptoris), not the reverse, except where it was permitted to join
a word to a known ending, as in peccad masc, gen. pectlia pectho
from peccafum, in consequence of the many words in -ad having
similar meaning. The words in -e, sometimes written -a, and
ya- (ia- and aia-) stems form a subdivision of the a-stems ; in them
either -i before -a was changed into -e, or -ia was forced into -S,
-ii into -z, — these long vowels being naturally shortened in the
auslaut ; all forms admit of being explained in both ways in the
most perfectly satisfactory manner. The -u in the dat. sing,
remained here in the combination -iu in the auslaut, for which,
however, -u and -i also occur ; in the dat. plur. a slight shortening
took place, as iib did not give -z6, but -ib.*^
The neuters exhibit a curious anomaly, inasmuch as the prim-
itive -a of the nom. and ace. plur., shortened to -a in the second
period, should have dropped oiF in the third ; if we connect with -a
of this case an analogous singular phenomenon, namely, that the
inna, na, of the article, as in the feminine, does not affect the
succeeding consonants, we shall be able to assume, with greater
probability, that in the Gaedhelic the disappearance of the neuter,
which in the Kymric can be no longer detected, had even already
been prepared in the plural, by the invasion of the feminine form,
for the inna of the article does not admit of being explained
otherwise than from innds. The Irish na cenela (nationes) con-
sequently admits of being compared with the Italian le arme
*^ [xxiii. In the Old Irish, as ia the Latin, the gen. sing, of masc. and neut. a-
stems was originally the locative sing., and has nothing whatever to do with
asi/a. Ebel is now inclined to admit this. See Beitrdqe, u. s. w. II. 186.]
*6 Zeuss erroneously remarks, page 248 : quae -ib dativi non inficiens ex -ab de-
fecisse videtur. The observation would have been in place at p. 253.
On Declension in Irish. 97
instead of ilia arma. Even the accusative plural mascuKne
inna^ na^ appears to rest upon an inorganic invasion of the femi-
nine form, because the substantive forms lead us to expect rather
*innu, *nu [conversely -iu, (-?/)= Lat. eos, occurs suffixed to the
prepositions, even as feminine] ; this form has also penetrated
even in the Modern Irish, from the accusative into the nomi-
native, so that a difference of genders is nowhere to be found
in the plural. The -ia stems form the plur. nom. regularly in -^,
as in the singular.
The adjectives mostly follow the rale of the substantives,
only that the -m-stems readily shorten the ace. plur. mas. into -i,
and the nom. plur. neuter often shows -i instead of the more
normal -e. The -/, which the a-stems often exhibit in the
neuter plural, is more remarkable, and is hitherto inexplicable
to me.'*^ A stem sdlnia, instead ofsdnia, may probably be assumed
for sain (diversus), in consequence of the ai. This has main-
tained itself in the form of the nom. plur. ; in the others it has
shortened itself like aile into aill. But how are we to explain
istlj dllsi, comaicsi? Of the pronominal a-stcms, a form has,
however, been preserved, in spite of the frightful ravages here
occasioned by the phonetic laws, which sets aside the only reason
which could probably be still put forward (except the accidental
similarity with the stem-auslaut a in the Sanskrit) in favour of ex-
plaining the gen. -a of the following classes by the Sanskrit -asi/a.
Of the stem a, there have been preserved: gen. sing. masc. and
neut. a, with affection of the succeeding consonants, consequently
pi-imitively a vowel-endmg stem ; gen. fem. a without afi'ection,
consequently for as; gen. pi. an, a, consequently produced from
an instead oi dm. Bopp therefoix3 believed hiraseir able to explain
the masc. a by asya, and the fem. d (instead of as) by as/jds. But
now di appears as the most ancient form of the gen. sing. masc. and
neut. (in Zeuss, 334, 345), besides ae, e (evidently e) also (Zeuss
347) ; consequently asya modified itself in the first instance into
di, and from thence issued the Gaedhelic forms a and e like the
Kymric y, e. Even then this form, which in consequence of its
shortness must sound fuller, differs very little from the usual
genitive of the a-stems. The neuter of the article a??, which
has weakened itself even to a, rests no doubt on a fundamental
form anat,*^ which from the outset must have become ana, an, be-
*' [xxiv. Adjectival a-stems never exhibit i in the nom. pi. But (as was to
be expected) this is done by adjectival t-stems, such as sain, isil, dilis, coinacuis,
whence saint, isli, dilsi, comaicsi. The adjectival i-declension exists at the present
day. See the paradigm {geanamhail), O'Donovan's Grammar, p. 112.]
** [xxv. More probably the neut. article an (a before a noun beginning with a
tenuis) stands for sa-n — the n being the neut. ending, and the sa the well-known
pronominal stem. The s appears in composition with non-aspirating prepositions,
III. 7
98 Celtic Studies.
cause anan (instead of anam) must Kave always retained an n;
the fundamental -at also explains the stronger shortening in the
neut. aill^ as compared with the masc. and fem. aile.^^
The explanation of the case endings is much more difficult in
the following classes, where the separation of the masculine u-
and i-, and the feminine a- and i-, stems, is already difficult.
The i- and w-stems sound in the nom. and ace. sing, perfectly
alike, for -is, -in, -zmust drop off Hke -us, -un, -u; even the vowel
of the stem does not always give us information, although denmid
(factor), for example, proves itself by the genitive denmada to
have been altered from denmad, muir (mare) announces itself by
its ui as an z-stem ; we must, therefore, endeavour to study the
stem much further, as, for instance, in hith (mundus), from the
Gaulish hitu; in ^(Z (arbor), from the Gaulish vidu and the Saxon
widu; in the verbals in -ad, from the analogy of the Latin in
-tus, etc. The only case which shows the stem clearly, the
accusative plural,^" the -us and -is of which have changed into -u
and -i, is unfortunately only very weakly represented, so that,
in many cases, no certainty can be attained. In the dative
singular -ui and -i are certainly to be assumed; these should
become -u and -i, and leave behind umlaut, but most words
take no umlaut (no doubt, in consequence of the primitive
length of the stem- vowel). Among the whole of the examples
in Zeuss, hiuth alone shows umlaut, which he accordingly has
placed in the paradigm. It would appear as if the endings -a,
-0, -e established a difference in the genitive singular ; but this is
by no means the case, as aithrehthado, from the nom. aithribthid
(possessor), for example, shows a decided i-stem; we must look
upon -0 rather as an obscuring of the -a, e, exactly as -ea and
-eo are the result of the subsequent action of a preceding sound,
or of one which had preceded. The explanation apparently
nearest to hand, that -o is derived fiom -aus ( = Sanskrit -6s), is,
consequently, to be rejected, and we are to assume either that
-aus, as well as -ais, has become -a, or, to start from the funda-
mental form, -avas and -ajas, which must likewise become -as,
-a; as the dative cannot be explained from- avi, -aji, the first hy-
pothesis is, no doubt, to be preferred.^^ According to the analogy
*' [For confirmation of this hypothesis see Ebel's paper " On the so-called
prosthetic n", p. 108.]
^•^ [xxvi. The nom. and ace. plur. (-i) and dat. plur. (-ib) of t-stems show
the stem clearly enough. But Ebel here, as elsewhere, suflfers from the incom-
pleteness of Zeuss's collection of examples.]
^^ [xxvii. Surely it is easier to assume that the i-stems (with one or two ex-
ceptions, such as tir, tire) passed over in the gen. sing, to the w-declension.
Hence the -o (-a) = -os, -mis. The fem. a-stems likewise, in the gen. sing. —
with five exceptions {inna, dena, mnda^ cacha, nucha) — have passed over to the
On Declension in Irish. 99
of the consonantal declension (compare also Gothic -yus and -e^s),
a fundamental form -avis and -ajis is to be laid down for the
nom. plur. ; -ais must arise from -avis^ and this, on the dropping
of the 5, could contract to -a, -^, or 4; -ajis, in consequence of
the preponderance of the z-sound, passed, as it appears, exclu-
sively into -z, certainly at least in the masculine in -ati (nom.
-id, gen. -ada) ; the auslauts were, as everywhere, subsequently
shortened, so that, along with -ui, -ae, -a, -e, and -i, also occur,
e.g. : gnimai, gmmae, gnima, gnime, gnimi, from the stem gnimu
(action). The form mogi, from the stem mugu, along with mogae,
is interesting, as their common origin from mogai is betrayed by
their o. The ending -e of the gen. plur. is remarkable ; it appears
to announce itself in moge as a degeneration of moga ; on the
other hand, it has produced umlaut in forcitlaide (praecepto-
rum); either there existed earlier a difference liere, as in the
nominative plural, such that -avan contracted itself into -an,
-ajan into -ian, -en, or, the umlaut in forcitlaide is inorganic,
and -e is in both cases degeneration of -a, from -dn=.-avdn and
ajdn, which forms we take as a starting point according to the
analogy of the Gothic -ivS and -S instead o{-iye. The dative plural
shows a remarkable anomaly, the normal -ih of the z-stem no
doubt appears in it, but not the -uh or -uib to be expected in the
w-stem, but, instead of it, -aib (compare aitrebthidib, mogaib) ;
either interchange has here taken place between ui and ai, a cir-
cumstance otherwise without exiample {ui for ai is frequent), or
the generality of the ending -aib introduced it inorganically here
also, in the same manner as in the Greek TroXfo-t, tttixectI the € ap-
pears to have penetrated by means of the false analogy of the other
cases. The neuter plur. in the nom. and ace. rind (constellations)
mind (insignia),/ess (scita), appears, at first sight, to be altogether
anomalous without an ending, which is the more striking as even
the a-stems show an ending where one ought not to expect it ; if,
however, we start from a fundamental form -vd, -ja, in which the v
and j were dropped, a development -a, -a, may also be conceived
(probably we should also take d=ava, aja for a starting point,
with inorganic gunation, in which case rind would bear the same
relation to gnima, as rax^a does to raxisg). In spite of much ob-
scurity in details, it is at least clear from the preceding, that the i-
and w-stems by no means so fully coincided from their origin, as
would appear from the representation of Zeuss. For the sake of
greater clearness, we shall here attempt to give an idea of the
i-declension, and consequently exhibit the ending e = es, of which the e was
probably produced, by a very ancient contraction, from a-i (cf. Goth, anstais).
Here, of course, as also in the Sanskrit and Lithuanian dves, awes, " etve's",
the stem-Towel has been gunated.]
7 B
100
Celtic Studies.
declension arranged according to tlie different periods, without
the secondary forms however : —
U- STEMS.
Primitive, period. Pre-historic period.
Historic period
Masc. Sing. Nom.
. bithus
biths
bith
Ace.
. bithun
bithu
bith
Gen.
. (bithavas) bithas?
betha
betha
Dat.
. bithui
bithu
biuth
Plur. Nom.
. (bithavis) bitbais
bethai
betha
Ace.
. (bithuns) bithus
bitha
biihu
Gen.
. (bithavan) bithavan
bethan
* betha
Dat.
. bithubis
bithuibs
* bithuib
Neut. Sing. . .
. fidu
fid
fid
Plur. . .
. (fidva)fida
I- STEMS.
feda
fed
Masc. Sing. Nom.
. denmadis
denmids
denmid
Ace.
. denmadin
denmidn
denmid
Gen.
. (denmadajas)denmadas?
denmada
denmada
Dat.
. denmada
denmadi
denmid
Plur. Nom.
. (denmadnjis) denmadis?
denmidi ?
denm
Ace.
. (denmadins) denmadis
denmidi
denmidi
Gen.
. (denmadajun) denmadajan
denmadan
* denmada
Dat.
. denmadibis
denmidibs
denmidib
Neut. Sing. . .
. fissi
fiss
fiss
PI. . . .
. (fissja) fissa
fessa
fess
According to this view, it is only the dative plural of the
w-stem mogaib that appears to be distinctly inorganic ; the gen.
plur. moge shows a weakening of the a into g, which we will
presently find again in the feminine.
The feminine a and z-stems have suffered still greater confu-
sion in their declension, so that the primitive stem can now only be
recognized from the vocalization of the nom. sing, and by com-
parison with other languages.^^ Thus the following show them-
selves by e and o to be a-stems: ess^ iress (fides), nem (coelum),
tol^^ (voluntas), hretJi (judicium), crock (crux), ingen (fiHa),
^2 [xxviii. It is true that in the Old Irish the fem. a stems have in the gen. (but
see note 51), dat. and ace. sing, gone over to the /-declension; and in the dat.
this was the case in Gaulish, as we learn from Behsaini (nom. Belesama) in the
inscription of Vaison. But in the Old Irish the fem. ?-stems are (with very few
exceptions*) still clearly distinguishable from the fem. a-stems. In addition to
the circumstance that the c-stems in general have their gen. sing, in -e, whereas
the t-stems make it in -o (a), the nom. and ace. pi. of fem. /-stems end in -/, but
those of the c-stems in -a. Next, the gen pi. of fem. /-stems ends in ae, -e ;
that of fem. a-stems has no ending. Thus nime.du/e, cai//e, rigne^ injimte^ bliadnej
fochraice, Joclilde, are the Old Irish genitives plur. respectively of neiUy nim
(heaven), dull (a thing), cai/l (a wood), ri'qain (a queen), injinit (an infinitive),
bliadaln (a year), (not hiiadan as Ebel wrongly gives it) ; jbrhricc (a reward),
fochaid (tribulation). Thirdly, the dat. pi. of fem. /-stems ends in -/6, that of
a-stems in -a/6 (dirmib, Zeuss, p. 670, probably comes from *airim: cf. Welsh rhif).'j
^3 In the Lord's Prayer, as given by O'Donovan, there is, however, bid do toil
(thy will be done), which indicates an /-stem.f
* (7a5di7and its compounds are declined in the plur. like d-stems, so idbairt, epert.
t [xxix. Toil here is the accusative sing., according to the regular Old Irish syntax
(Zeuss, p. 894) : the nom. sing, is iol, wliich was anciently a fem. d-stem.
On Declension in Irish. 101
aimser (tempus), and tlie words in -em: such as moidem (laus),
cretem (fides) ; — by ia instead of 6: grian (sol), hriatliar (ver-
bum), hliadan (annus); — by comparison: run (mysterium) =
Gotliic runa^ fere (ira) = 6pyn, tlie words in -acht oxid -echt,
wliich presuppose a Sanskrit -akatd and -ikatd, and which are
not consequently derived directly from the stem-substantive, but
through a hypothetical adjective in -ach or -ech ( = Sanskrit -a^^a,
-ika)^ as for example, deaclit (divinitas), which is not obtained
directly from dia^ but through *deach (divinus). We must like-
wise consider as i-stems the verbal-nouns in -t, such as epert
(locutio), tabart, tahairt (datio), and also iarfigid (inquisitio,
quaestio); the secondary forms, as muing, f.zzmung, m. (a mane),
quoted by Pictet, (op. cit. p. 123), appear to be z-stems (whose
nominative -i, -i, 1, cannot be distinguished in its real state from
-isy >s, > ). No certain distinctions can be at all recognized in
the case-endings, and nothing can be based upon the secondary
forms. The genitive singular shows, for instance, along with
the dominant -e, also -a and -o; but if we would assign the -a to
the «-stems, and the -e to the e-stcms, we find our proposition con-
tradicted by the circumstance that -e is the commonest ending,
and appeal's just in those words the vowels of which point to -a,
as in nime, itisse, ingine, and that -a occurs frequently in charac-
teristic i-stcms, as in eperta; if, on the other hand, we would
assign -a to the z-stems, from the analogy of the masculine, and -e
to the a-stcms from the analogy of the Latin -o^, the feminine of
the adjectives like cacha, nacha. (and even oena, along with aine)^
will remain unconsidered ; consequently -a is clearly the oldest
form in both classes, it weakened itself into -o and -e, even in the
same words ; e. g..^ dude and dulo, from dul (mundus, res, crea-
tura), and the umlaut before e, in spite of its universaUty, is in-
organic; the fundamental forms -as and -ajas must also follow
the same course : -as, -a, -a, or if we prefer starting from -ais in-
stead o£ -ajas, we have -ais, -ai, -a. The i -stems could form the
dat. sing, in -?, -i (or -aji, z, -i, which is less probable), the a-
stems either in (-dl), -e, e, or (-ai), -i, i-, as in the nominative
plural of the masculine ; both of them consequently agree, as may
be expected, in the umlaut. An -is, -z, -i might have been ex-
pected in the nominative plural, as in the masculine, from the
fundamental form -ajis; but an ais, -ai, -a, was equally possible;
and if the examples give -a, -e, and^-i, an -ai, -i, -i is not impossible,
even in the case of a-stems (compare Greek -at, Latin -ae) : con-
sequently a separation of both classes, according to the ending,
is neither a priori necessary, nor in the actual state possible (see
the examples in Zeuss, 262, 263); although, nor doubt, the as-
simiption of a primitive difference between -a (from -as) and -i
102 Celtic Studies.
(from -ajis) has much in its favour. What is most striking is,
that no ending whatever is found, not only in persin from persan
(persona), which is treated in Modem Irish altogether as an n-stem
(nom. pear so), but also in aimsir; and only in the vowel is there
an indication of -i. Zeuss considers the e and i as secondary forms,
which have resulted from assimilation: litre, epistli, appear to
speak in favour of this view, but not hliadni; for an a has been
here dropped. The following hypothesis appears to me to offer
most advantages: the feminines in -i formed like the mascuHnes,
the nominative plural in -i (see above), those in -a, contracted -di
(as in the Greek and Latin), into e or i, which, in consequence of
its genesis from -di, yielded somewhat more resistance to re-
trenchment than the -i of the masculine resulting from -a^, and
which therefore maintained itself, in part, in the weakening -e, -i,
and in part actually dropped off; but the form -a rests (as in
Slav, -y, -e), on an interchange with the accusative, which fre-
quently took place in the old language, but which has deformed
the whole declension in the modern. This hypothesis is supported
by the nominative plural of the m-stems, which never contain -e,
but everywhere 4, a circimistance which points to an earher -i
generated from -ie or -ii. The class -distinctions are completely
obHterated in the gen. plur. (without ending), dat. (^-aih and -ib
without distinction), and ace. plur.,^* which also often terminates
in -a in undoubted ^-stems, e. g., idharta (oblationes), seldom in
-I, as duli (res), epistli (epistolas).
If almost everywhere here, an invasion occurred of the most
numerous a-stems, the reverse appears to have taken place in
the accusative sing., which exhibits, almost without exception,
umlaut or a primitive i; only delb (imaginem) and nem (caelum)
point to an ending -an (an). Even if we were to assume that -a«
was changed, as in the Zend, into -en (in the consonantal declen-
sion we were led to an accusative -in or -en), the cause why this
degeneration did not befall the primitive -an of the feminine
rather than the -an of the masculine, would still remain unex-
plained. The m-stems partake of the above mentioned deformities
in the accusative singular, which terminates in -i instead of -e, and
in the accusative plural, which likewise ends in -i, on the other
hand the gen. sing, -e leads us back to the primitive -a of this case ;
the nominative plural -i appears to be formed according to rule,
except that all the end syllables are shortened. Accordingly,
instead of the forms to be expected, — which are somewhat as
follows :
^* [See Note 52, p. 100.]
On Declension in Irish. 103
Sing. Nom.
-a
-a
—
Ace.
•an
•^n
—
Gen.
-as
-a
-a
Dat.
-i
-i
>
Plur. Nora.
-i
-I
fC?)
Ace.
-as
-a
-a
Gen.
-an
-an
—
Dat.
-dbis
-aibs
-aib
-is
>s >
-in
)» >
-as
-d -a
-i
-i >
-is
-i -i
-is
"i -i
-ajan
-an -a
-ibis
-ibs -lb
.
-a (-0
-aib i-ib)
— we find the following actually occurring :
Singular . . — , ^ Plural
>_ (-)^
>.e (-a, o)
in whicli 2 represents the after-action of the retrenched i. The
same degeneration of the original forms occurs again, as may be ex-
pected, in the Modern Irish, where an cliolam (columba) fluctuates
in the gen. sing, and nom. plur. between na colaime and colama,
and even in the dat. sing, between do'n cholam and cJiolahne; it is
still further increased by the circumstance that the genitive has
also frequently thrown off the inflexion vowel, e. g. na hoigh from
an oigh (virgo). In general, however, the a-stems appear to have
assumed the ending -e; the i-stems on the other hand -a, e.g.: slat
(rod), gen. sing, and nom. plur. slaite; sgiath (wings), gen. sgeithe;
neamh (heaven), gen. neimhe; \)M%feoil (flesh), has however, gen.
sing, and nom. plur. /^oZa; and oigh, although in the gen. sing., it
has hoigh, in the plural it is na hogha. The fluctuation has even
passed over to the masculine, for ^as^ (fish) forms gen. ^wc, plur. £?zsc
or iasca; and sruth (scholar), in both cases smith or srotha. In the
Old Irish, the vocative has been already suppressed throughout in
the plural by the accusative ; in the singular there are only some
forms of the a- and a-stems preserved, e.g. fir from fire, as in
other languages ; duini from duinie; and among consonantal stems
the single one ath{a)ir in the Lord's prayer. We have already
found arguments in the Old Irish for a permutation of the accusative
and nominative. The consonantal n- and ^-stems sufifer likewise a
peculiar mutilation in the Old Irish. The secondary forms related
to anim (anima) ; gen. anrne, dat. and ace. anim, admit of being
explained from a vocahc fundamental form : not so the anomaly,
wliich not unfrequently occurs, that the nominative directly sup-
plants the dative and accusative. Examples: do foditiu (ad
tolerationem), do aurlatu (ad obedientiam), ace. aurlatu (obedi-
entla); compare also Pictet's observations (Beitrage zur verglei-
chenden Sprachforschung, I. 82 fll), where the reverse is like-
wise proved. The circumstance that, in the Modern Irish, there is
mostly (except in the anlaut) no difierence to be found between
the nominative and dative singular, agrees with the foregoing ;
it consequently appears that the accusative first coalesced with
the nominative, and then the dative. The language is, therefore,
104 Celtic Studies.
in a fair way to lose all its inflexions like the Kymric dialects,
and first of all the genitive plural, whicli now is most like the
nom. sing. ; — properly speaking, only the gen. sing, and plur. and
dat. plur. are yet retained : indeed the latter has been already de-
prived of its ending in the article, in the same way as the adjec-
tives have lost all their inflexions. The decision as to the origin of
the modern forms of the consonantal stems is rendered more diffi-
cult by this phenomenon. Only few still correspond to the old
form, thus hreitheamh (judex), gen. breitheamhan, nom. plur.
hreitheamhuin^ with brititem, gen. britheman, nom. plur.
BRiTHEMAix. DoHeamh (butler), for example, deviates already in
the gen. daileamhuin, from dalem (caupo), gen. ddleman. The
majority have aflixed -e or -a either in the nom. plur. or in both
cases, and it is diflicult to decide wlietlier we arc to look upon this
as a simple trans^ition into the vocalic declension (as in New High
German hrunnen^ instead of hrumi), or whether the nom. in -a
is not really an accusative; probably the accusative form first
passed into that of the nominative, and that then the genitive
singular followed the analogy of the nominative plural now
appearing vocalic. A striking example oi' this mixture of forms
is aflbrded by cu (canis) ; gen. con (perfectly normal), or cuin {a-
stem) ; dat. com (normal); nom. plur. co??>a (accusative foiin), or con
(spurious formation), or coin (normal) ; gen. cu (mutilated), or con
(normal) ; dat. conaibli. The nominative plural oAliara from athair
(father), has assumed the accusative form, and thereby got the ex-
ternal appearance of a vocalic stem, which has succeeded the gen.
sing, athara (together with the primitive atltar); side by !?ide with
them foims with -ach have been introduced ; e. g.: aithreach (as in
Old Irish cathtr).^^ The application of the suflix -adh (compare
denmid, denmada, or tenga, iengad), as an inflexion-copulative, is
new; e. g.: in the plural bogadha (for bogJia, how), coui^idered
also by Pictet {Op. cit. 128) to be anew formation ; but, perhaps,
it may help us to an explanation of the Kymvic pliu-al forms.
The Kymric, on which we must in conclusion cast a glance,
has preserved nothing more of its whole inflexions, even in the
oldest documents, than the sign of the plural, but this it employs
very arbitrarily: compare ti'inteib (tres lilli) with meibion, melbon,
and tyreu (turres) with i//roed. Obviously, as in the New High
German, this is of three kinds: either the old plural form re-
mains, consequently true inflexions, as bruder, giUle, fische, from
the Gothic brothrjus, gaslels, jUlws; or the dropped oft" ending
of the stem in the singular has disappeared behind the gramma-
^^ [xxx. Aiihi-each is simply due to a passage over to the c-declension. So
in Early Middle Irish we have mainisiir (from monaster ium\ making its gen. sing.
manestrech. Zeuss, xxviii."j
On Declension in Irish. 105
tical ending, as in mannen^ where the -an of the Gothic manna
(stem mannan), which has vanished in the singular, has been
preserved, while the proper ending, the s of mannans, has been
dropped ; or a suffix (determinative), wholly foreign to the stock,
like the German -er in eier, to which true inflexion-endings were,
at an earlier period (Anglo-Saxon dgru), attached, but which,
after their loss (as in the Old High German nom. eigir)^ exactly
occupies the place of the ending, like German lander instead of
lande^ except in the dative plural.
To the first kind belong : 1, the Kymric plurals without end-
ings, and with umlaut, such as Welsh llygeit — Corm^ legeit
(oculi) ; Welsh s^{??^= Armoric sent (sancti) ; Welsh cliivaer (soro-
res), from chwior; ^rae^ = Cornish treys, Armoric treid (pedes),
from troet, Cornish troys^ Armoric troad, — or without umlaut, as
tridyn (tres homines), telr morwyn (tres puellae). All these
forms have lost an -e, probably a primitive -i or -is (-wf),
and consequently may be compared to the Gaedhelic forms
such as maicc (fllii), to which the Welsh meib, or traigid, the
Kymric traet, treys, treid correspond; for instance, the mascu-
line verbals in -iat, -lad, pi. -ieid, such as guiliat, are parallel
to the Gaedhelic in -i, pi. -id (fdid) (see above). 2. The plurals
in i, such as meini (lapides), from maen, Corn, esely (mem-
bra) = Armoric ysily, from esel, appear to correspond to the
Gaedhelic -i (in ia- and feminine stems) ; but interchanges occur,
however, such as Cornish meyn, Armoric mein, alongside of
Welsh meini, and this even in the same dialect, e. g. : Cornish tell,
and also tylly (foramina), from tol, which do not allow a strict
separation to be effected. As further instances may also be ad-
duced llestri, Cornish, and Armoric, llstri, which represent
Gaedhelic *lestir, while on the other hand dyn is the Gaedhelic
dolni. 3. Finally, the plurals in -au and -iau with their different
formations (Zeuss, 290, 122), also belong oiiginally to this
category; e. g. tyreu (turres), Cornish defhyow = AYmov[G dizlou
(dies) ; -au appears to have belonged originally to the w-stems,
the verbals in -at {-iat), -ad, pi. -adau also correspond to the
Gaedhelic abstracts (Infinitive) in -ad, -ud, which take -a in
plural, so that -au admits of being very well explained from the
Sanskrit -avas. Pictet's (op. cit, p. 135) comparison with the
Sanskrit -as, which changes into -6 before sonants, although
adopted by Bopp and Kulin also, is certainly erroneous. But
afterwards confusion came in here likewise, so that we see -au
exactly like the Slavonian -ov and the Greek -ev and other
detenninatives applied to other stems also, and hence even to -iau.
Besides, all three suffixes occur in both genders, so that perhaps
the -i of the feminine may confirm the above assumed Gaedhelic
fundamental form of the nominative plural.
106 Celtic Studies.
The second kind embraces w-stems, such as the apparently ano-
malous ki (canis), the plural of which is in Welsh, gun, cwn^
Cornish ken, and which corresponds exactly with the GaedheHc
CM, plur. cuin (the Gaedhelic u is the Kymric ^); and ?/cA = ox,plur.
y chain (ancient, ychen) =.oxen — further, Welsh brawt, which has
lost its final r, plur. hrodyr (Cornish brand and broder^ while in
the Armoric sing, breur, breer^ the d has yielded, plur. breuder).
Kuhn (p. 595) wished also to include under the third category
the -an of gen. cluasan (the ears), but in tliis word it belongs
undoubtedly to the third, as cluas is evidently the old stem,
which, in the beginning, was treated in the declension like dis.
To the third kind belong the following: 1. Many plurals in -au,
'iau, in which the ending is foreign to the word-stem proper, such
as penneu (capita), stem pinna (or pz?2^a) =r Gaedhelic cinna, from
which nom. cenn, dat. ciunn, or breicheu (brachia), stem breich,
instead of brechi ; 2, most words in -ion (or -on), e.g.: deneon,
dynyon (homines), from the stem dini (instead of dinia, as the
Gaedhelic duine shows), or meibion (fihi), along with which appear
likewise after numerals the forms meib, dyn, and all Welsh plural
adjectives, e.g. meirwon, along with meirw, from marw (mortuus)
= Gaedhelic marb, plural mairb (moirb). The -n consequently
takes exactly the same place here as in the German adjectives
and many feminines. 3. The endings -et, -ot, -ieit, -eit^ and -ed, yd,
oed, which otherwise occur as derivatives, and in this respect have
been already compared above with the Gaedhelic -ad, -id, likewise
join many stems as determinatives, in which respect they are
parallel with the -ad, in Irish bogadha, already compared, if I do
not err, by Kuhn. (Both forms are related to one another, as
Xfip'^T is to iXiriS in the Greek.) Compare the following words
in -t: merchet (filiae), from merch (is this identical with Li-
thuanian, merga ?), Cornish denys (homines), Armoric bretonet
(Britanni) with those in -ed : Welsh, bydoed (mundi) from byt =
Irish bith, Cornish e/e^/i = Armoric aelez (angeli). On the other
hand, the favourite suffix of the Gaedhelic -adh is not employed
as a determinative in Kymric.
In the representation of my results, I have altogether followed
the same analytical method ^hich I had struck out in the inves-
tigation itself, in order to render the verification easier to the
reader. Many things will require completion and correction. On
the whole, I hope that the results obtained will show themselves
to be correct.
2. ON THE ARTICLE IN MODERN IRISH.
IN the modern Irish article an, about the relation of which to
the old int, ind, I could not hitherto come to a satisfactory-
conclusion, I now recognize, with certainty, an intinision of the
tas
f
On the Article in Modern Irish. 107
neutral form, as tlie most colourless and weakest, precisely as the
Middle Higli German had formed to its neuter daz a masculine
and feminine der, diu, and the Lithuanian and Slavonian (to to) its
tas, ta, tUy ta. The English use of that (pronoun) and the (article)
" r all genders is especially important in this respect.^
It is a fact worthy of attention, but one hitherto scarcely
ticed, that, besides the coarser, I may say the material, action
languages upon one another, which shows itself in the evident
borrowing of words and forms, a finer, a more spiritual influence is
exerted. Again, that certain words, without being borrowed, are
preserved hving and active, by the neighbourhood of other lan-
guages, and that many forms of thought and sound, words, ex-
pressions, conversational phrases, attach themselves, so to say, to
the soil. A comparative syntax would bring many examples of
tliis kind to light, especially in the languages which have grown
up on Celtic ground, and determine how much may be ascribed
to accident, and how much to intellectual influences. In the
Phonology, for example, the Kymric ui, oi, representing the
Gaedhelic ^ (even in loan-words like cera, W. 2. kuyr, 3. kwyr,
Cornish V. coir, Armoric coar) is parallel with the French o^,
representing the Latin e (avoir —habere) ; again, the Celtic action
of the final sound on the following word is parallel to the for-
ward attraction in les amis, etc. Among the words and word-
forms which have been preserved on Celtic ground, we may
mention: English, witness =z Gaedhehc fiadnisse (testimonium),
and the English names in -ton, along with the Gaulish in -dunum.
Of importance in the Syntax are: the French intercalation of
the pronoun in je faime, je ne faime pas, as in both branches of
the Celtic; the French c'est moi and the English it is me=
Gaedhelic isme; the English leaving out of the relative in, the
man (whom) 1 saw, as in the Gaedhelic. Now, in this respect the
English that, the, for all genders, are not without importance for
the Celtic also, and permit us to conclude, that in the Modern Irish
an fear for the Old Irish in fer, an analogous process has taken
place. The relative an (a, no, n) appears to belong to the same
stem ; we may compare the fluctuation between the relative and
the demonstrative in the Homeric language, the peculiar use of
the Old Persian A?/a, which Bopp also,^^ as I myself did,^^ now
looks upon as an article, and our antiquated relative so.
^^ [xxxi. This is an ingenious error. The neut. article is quite lost in
Middle Irish, and the Modern Irish article an {an t before a vocalic anlaut),
bears the same relation to the Old Irish in (int) that the Modern Irish preposition
an (written a n-) does to the Old Irish in ; or the Modern Irish interrogative par-
ticle an does to the same particle in the Old Irish, viz., in. But here, as elsewhere,
more is to be gained from Ebel's mistakes than from many another man's truths.
The relative an, a, is doubtless identical in form with the neut. article =*sa-n.']
*' Vergl. Gram. I. 473. 2nd Ed. ^^ Zeitschrift f. Vergl. Sp. v. 305.
108 Celtic Studies.
3. ON THE SO-CALLED PROSTHETIC 71.
Mr. Stokes, in liis valuable observations on the Irish declen-
sion, has agreed with my remark, that the n of the inflexion has
been preserved in teora nguttae, and here and there also
besides the article, and has communicated several examples.
Zeuss, curiously enough, has altogether misunderstood this w,^^
and everywhere looked upon it either as a superfluous addition
or as a shorter form of the article, e. g., before atle, although
there it appears only in the nom. neut. and ace. sing, and gen.
plur. of all of the three genders, — often in combinaiions where
no article is possible. As a relic of the article I have met with
this n, only in very few places, and then as the remains of the
shortest forms: ax (a-x-) in tresngne, Z. 611, where the e of
TRES still indicates an a di'opped out, and Ni epur nisin (non
dico hoc, instead of anisin) 352; in (ace. dual) in etarxdi-
RAiNN 278, 614, probably as gen. dual in cechtarnai, nkch-
NARXAi i)Q'd (compare the plur. innan ai). The n in lasin
NGUTAT (instead of lasinx gutai) 619, 1017. The most of the
other examples are clear enough. I shall give here some proofs,
which may easily be increased. Nom. and ace. neut. folad /iAiLL,
OLCC nAILL, J)ES.(i.e., DESIMRECHT) WAILL, TROXOMEN 71AILL 363,
IMBELRE 7iAILL 580, MOR WAMRI 596, 889, GRAD ^EPSCUIP 1048,
AM. XACH AxxsE nBuiB (ut nou diflicile vobis) 703, huare
ISDILMAIX TiDOCHECHTAR 369, AXD:^DE mSIU 319, 704, AXUA-
THATH 7dsiV 353, AXDLlGED JllsiU 353, MOOR 72IMXITH 21, MoR
nuiLE 609, 889, dligeth wimmogxama 984, cach ?;iBELRE 489,
FRI OACHrtAE 319, MIXD ^ABSTALACTE 229, RAD TtBt 55, ATA
DECHOR 71AIMSTRE 1037, ATA DECHOR r/ETARRU 374, ISSAIX CACH-
72AE (previously: ilsexmax) 367, dered wbetho 985, is-fuath
yiEPERTA 985, SAIXRETH 72AXMMAE 1025, ARACUMACTTE ^^AXGID
xi ARMISOM ARCHUMACTTE ([nam] potestatem ncquam non nume-
rat ipse pro potestate) 247, nifail xach waiccidjt (non est
ullum accidens) 1016, xicumscaichthi cumacht^ ?iAiRi (non
mutanda potcstas propterea) 1015, xi fitir imorro olc ?ietir
(nescit autcm malum omnino) 1003, laa jV/bratha 479, allaithe
nDEDENACHDlUD [no doubt ALLAITHEX DEDEXACH DIDDirdie
extreme (ace. temp.) in line] 316, isnoichtkch re ;?iuil (est
undetricenale spatium Julii) 1075, isgxath gag et fir ha'sd
359. So also : arindi atreba toxal 7iAXD 359 ? Ace. masc. co rig
h ILAINGLECH Colmaus hymn — Lib. Hymn. 10 (to the many
angel'd king), according to a friendly communication of J\lr.
Stokes, COFER nAiLE Z. 884, marudbaitsius xach«aile 434,
^^ [xxxii. Not so. See Zeuss G. C, page 263, where he conjectures that
the very form cited here by Ebel, teora n, may stand for teoran.']
On the So-called Prosthetic n. 109
^■tbith 7?uile 366, tresinnoedecde wuile 1074, fochosmuiliu3
iiADAiLCJE 481, INFOGUR nisiN 1014, Without the article besta-
TiDwisiN 611, AES wESCi 1074 (three thnes), nifail chumscdgud
JiHUIRDD AND 369, TAR RECHT ?/AICNID 613 RECUT 7ZIMBIDI 229,
LETH 7iG0TH0 1013 (consefjuently leth is also masc. like recht),
CONROIGSKT DIA 7/AIRICI13SI 1076, AIRTHECH. CACHGUT.E AGUTH
7aNDI 966, TODDIUSGAT GUTH WIXTTU 1017, CEN RIAN ?iETROM
616. So albo no doubt: nach uail^ 368, toiniud ^uressach 229,
NERT ?iAixMNEDO 975, ATTLUGUD mBUiDE 1048 (the acc. instead
of the dat.?), cach?/oen crann 999? I am not quite certain of
the gender in: fri cdmtach nECOLSO 260, cumtach wirisse
1045, ECOSC 71ABSTAL 585, TAIBRTTH ATEICHTE UDOIB (nO doubt
neuter) 56. Acc. fern, fricach ??aimsir 367, cech ??aidche
(instead of aidchi) 888, isarnach 7?indocbail moir 2i52^ hi cach
?iDEiLB 7 HI CACH TARMORCENN 367 (translated by Zeuss as the
dat.), I TERSIN 71AILL 363, FRIRAINN UAUA 608, CEN GUTAI W.E-
TARRU 1017; also doubtless: roscarsam frib denus mBEicc
310, HIRES WABARCHE 229, SERC TJDEE 55 (just aS NE3I, DELB
occur in the acc), gen alpai wetarru 616,^" frialpai jidesiu
595. Gen. plur. masc. innamball ?iaile 229, fern, na liter
71AILE 1012, liter waile 1012, neut. anman nADiECHT 433.
Some spurious propositions, it would appear, may be recognized
as accusative forms 1 )j the n, most distinctly taresi in : u. tar-
HESi ni (u for i) 1012, olcc taresi ?iUiLCC 617, but indegaid
also: indegaid nm: 619, indegaid ?zgutt^ 1013, and dochum:
DOCHUM iiDtE 620, DOCHUM «iRissE 461 (bis).
The n of ainm-n belongs to the stem in: ainm wapstil 229,
AIN3I WHETHA 255, AINM JlGNt^SO 975, AINM WDILES 1025,
DOBERR AINM iiDOiB 457.*^^ According to this my observation
(p. 89), " probably derived, however, fronii m^ and not formed
from a primitive «", must consequently be cancelled, and the
single example with an aspiration ainm thriuin Z. 249, con-
sidered as an irregularity.^^ As yet I have failed in finding for
the masculine and feminine 7?-stems an example of the aspiration,
or of a mortified s,/; I have also, however, nowhere found an n;
it consequently appears as if the neuter only preserved the n as
in the Latin and Slavic, *anmen like nomen and ime, while the
masculine and feminine dropped it ; *britiiema like homo and
KAMY.
^•^ According to Stokes (Beitriige zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung I. 468)
the n of ALPAi-N and inrindlde-n belongs to the stem.
^' See last note.
®^ [xxxiii. The n in ainm napstil does not belong to the stem, but (as in
pronomen naill cited by Ebel himself, supra) is simply an example of the
natural tendency to prefix after all neuters in the nom. and acc. sing, an n {m
before 6) to the following adjective, if this begin with a vowel or a medial.]
110 Celtic Studies.
The n is much less clear in cechtarnai, nechtarnai Z. 369
(which I consider to be a relic of the gen. dual of the article in,
on account of dochechtar nhai, evidently the dative, and of the
genitive plural innan ai), sliab nossa 888 (perhaps ace. ?), sirid
iNRiNDiDE NUiLE (scc note 60) 366, 586, arbertar as noen
TARMOIRCIUNN 592, far NOENDEILB 670, AM. INLOCHAIRNN
NAFFRACDAi 676, whcrc it appears to be in part actually er-
roneous; coTiR NEREND 74, appears to indicate a change of
gender (comp. recht, leth, nert) ; even there, however, Zeuss
also gives fir nerend (viri Hiberniae) with a problematical n.
There is probably a threefold preposition do-air-in contained
in TAIRNGIRE, DURAIRNGERT, DORAINGRED Z. 56, 868; in the
same way that con became mutilated in frecndirc £cndirc.
But, very remarkably, the n appears very often after verbal
forms; mostly, perhaps exclusively, in dependent sentences,
frequently after the so-called relative : aswoindae inspirut 360,
ASWED 675, AM. ASnt ASSPLENDOR 333, ASniRESS 456, ASWOIPRED
476, AM. As?iiNDEDUR 580, ORE AsnDiUL 703, c:^iN bas??ib:6o
infer 230, 675, hore as?lamairessach 705, lasse bas nuain
(nuair?) do 229, as?idirruidig[the] anainmsin 266, ammi
weulig 252, consechat tlulgu 457, ata tianman sidi 894, ni
cumcat camaiph ille 7 iste beta waithfoilsigthecha dondi
as ipse 667, intain bes winun accobor lenn 603.^^
Notwithstanding that several examples still remain unex-
plained, the preponderating majority show quite clearly, never-
theless, that the n is prosthetic, if at all, only in exceedingly
few cases; for instance, the forms assumed by Zeuss, naill,
NAILE, NAiLi, NisiN, nIsiu, and NAND for AND decidedly fall out.
4. ADDITIONS TO THE ARTICLE ON DECLENSION.
According to a communication of Mr. Stokes, that has reached
me through Professor Kuhn,^* the a-stems show in the Old Ogam
inscriptions not only the gen. in i — MAQVP^ (a form which ex-
plains by its qv not only the Kymric map, but also the Gaed-
helic masc. without aspiration), but also the nominative in -as
(CORPIMAQVAS— Cormac). This highly interesting form
may accordingly be placed by the side of /xapfcav, Pausanias, x. 19,
11, in which we are now justified in recognizing the true Gaulish
accusative of marcas* ( = gen. marc, w. 3, maj^cJi, plur. meirch).
The Ogam secondary forms in -os, show us at what a remote
period the obscuration of the a to o was already common. I
^3 May it be, that as in Greek, an v ^eKkvotikov existed ? Stokes also compares
am/tti-/i with iafikv.
^* [Published in the Beitriige z. t. Sp. i. 448.]
^^ [Given in Mr. Stokes' paper, " Bemerkungen uber die irischen declinationen"
— Beitr. z. v. Sp. i. 333.]
Additions to the Article on Declension. Ill
would not, with Stokes ,^^ deduce the length of the dat. plur. from
the single form sceldib, as even feminine a-stems fluctuate between
p-a6, -ib, aib, which indicates a short vowel; and the ia-stems
[variably show -ib, instead of the -ib to be expected.
That the neutral aill rests on a vocaHc fundamental form, the
or (i being di'opped (like Greek aXXo), as was already suspected
fp. 90), is confirmed by the mortification of the s in alaill sain,
According to an observation kindly communicated to me,
[r. Stokes now recognizes in Zeuss' Ordo posterior Ser. iv.,
iree kinds of stems, in -d, -t, and -nf. The latter, to which dinu,
idu, cava, ndma (ndmae), belong, correspond accurately to the
)articiples in -ant,^'' as, for instance, cara (from cairim, amo),
Jiadu) = vSdant — Stokes) ; dinu appears to be connected with the
Sanskrit root dhe (" suckling") ; cara and ndina likewise occur in
the nom. in Zeuss, who has mistaken the true relation, and led
me astray: imcara fd aescare (sive amicus, sive inimicus), 674,
831, and ba7inamae (inimica), together with the ace. bannamit
(hostem), 820, the ace. carit, 1055, 1062, escarit, 1056. These
stems appear to be of the common gender like the Latin participles.
On the other hand, the -it in nebcongabthetit stands no doubt er-
roneously for -ith (as generally in all abstracts). That traig is a
neuter appears to be confirmed by traig cethargarait, 1018 (Gl.
proceleusmaticum, consequently an ace.) ; it looks Hke a participle
(^ = Tpixov), but inflects the dat. plur. traigthib, ace. plur. traigid;
traigtliech (pedes, pedester), and traichtechdae, instead of triag-
thecJidae {Tp^destev), are derivational; the neuters have, therefore,
probably thrown out the n, and taken a weak form (traigthib =
tragitdbis). The Kymric troet, plur. tract appears to rest on
stem ' extension, — compare Welsh, 2. cilid, 3. cilyd, with
Gaedhelic cele; at least, a Kymric car, tan, stands parallel with
the Gaedhelic cara, tene, so that we have to look in the Kymric
forms rather for the nominative, than, as in the Roman lan-
guages, for the accusative (see further on). The comparison made
m the article on declension (p. 92) between the Kymric guiliat
and the Gaedhelic filed agrees with the explanation of Zeuss ;
see the emendations to pages 149 and 806, at the end of the
Grammatica Celtica.
I cannot as yet make up my mind to give up my former view
respecting the feminines in the Ordo Prior, Ser. 5 of Zeuss,
namely, that an almost complete fusion of the i- and a-steras
took place, and that only few relics of a purer separation of
foims have been preserved. Along with the ace. plur. in -i, to
«« [Idem, 336.] «7 ^Iso, Stokes' view, Beitr. i. 457.
112 Celtic Studies.
wMcli suli Z. 339, likewise belongs, there occur, however, forms
with -a from undoubted z-stems, as gahdla ; along with the
dative in -aih, forms occur in ib from a-stems, as airmib from
dram, sUbib from sliab; so that nmiib also does not prove a stem
*nami (the nom. nim along with nem, ace. nem, the adjective
7iemde= *'nimaiya and the Kymric nef appear to speak for *nimd,
which perfectly corresponds to the feminine of the adjective in the
Welsh, while i, u, fall out without umlaut in the Kymric ; further,
that nem- never occurs before the endings with e, i, but always
nim-; the gen. plur. nime is however remarkable). But I cannot
adopt Mr. Stokes' view about the gen. sing, in -e, -a ; for, in the
first place we should not start from Sanskrit -^s, but from the
fundamental form -ais (or ajas?), out of which -a (o), and -e
could be developed in the masculine stems ; but -7/ds is a special
pure Sanskrit form, which does not again occur in any European
language (for that ttoXewc is not to be explained from it, but
from *7roA£yo<,', is proved by the Homeric TroXriog, the unjustly
attacked masc. fiavrriog, and the neuter aarEwc, which, although
questioned, is a permanent form with the Tragic Poets) ; secondly,
because umlaut is as little known before a (o) among z-stems as
a-stems: compare JlatJia, Jlatho, or even focheda, fochodo; a
occurs even before -e in ergabale; we could not consequently
lay down as a basis any such form as -jas, and must, as I believe,
assume that the umlaut in both classes has only been introduced
inorganically with the change of the a into e.^^ The analogy of
the gen. plur., especially the invaluable nandula,^^ appears even to
speak in favour of our starting, both here and in the masculine of
Ser. III., from -ajas (not from -ais).
As regards the ^-stems, it appears to me more and more pro-
bable, that they have almost throughout passed, as in the Greek,
into the m-class (worvta) =patm, etc.
I have found the umlaut in the dative of the w-jstems, in
immognom, Z. 984.
III. Appendix.
TRANSLATION OF THE PART OF THE SECOND CHAPTER OF ZEUSS' GRAMMATICA
CELTICA CONCERNING THE INFLEXIONS OF THE NOUN IN IRISH, REFERRED
TO IN THE ESSAY OF DR. EBEL.
[One of the most remarkable featiires of Zeuss' work is the large number of
examples taken from MSS. which he has brought forward as the basis upon
which his grammatical canons are founded. Thus the examples given in the
part of the chapter here translated fill considerably more than thirty pages.
All these examples not being necessary for the purposes for which this transla-
tion was made, only a small selection of them has accordingly been given. Th
68 [See notes 51, 52.]
6^ [xxxiv. Dula is, unfortunately, only found in a Middle Irish MS. : in Old
Irish MSS. it is always either duh or duile.^
Appendix^ On the Inflexions of the Noun. 113
following are the abbreviations which Zeuss uses to distinguish the MSS. from
which each example has been borrowed : —
1— Sg.=Codex Pris(!iani SanctI Galli, No. 904 ; 2— Wb.=C. Paulinus Bib-
liothecae AVirziburgensis M. th. f. 12 ; 3— M1.=:C. Mediolanensis Bibliothecae
Ambrosianae C. 301; 4— Cr.=C. Bibl. Carlisruhensis, 83; 5— Pr. Cr.=C.
Prisciani Bibl. Carlisruh. 223 ; 6— Incant. Sg.=C. Sancti Galli, 1395 ; 7— Co-
dex Camaracensis, 619. Gl. signifies Gloss.]
(A) Declension.
In the old Irisli language, the nouns of which have preserved a
great variety of forms — in this respect far surpassing the Welsh even
of the same period — we find two orders of declension, of which the
first, on account of the prevalence of vowels in the inflections, may be
called the " vocalic", and the second, for a similar reason, the " con-
sonantal order". To the former belong the adjectives, which do not,
as in other languages such as the German and Sclavonic, possess pe-
culiar forms of their own ; substantives alone are found in the latter,
though in less number than in the first. In both orders the flexional
vowels are either exterior, apphed to the end of the word, or inte-
rior, placed immediately before the final consonant, whether it be a
radical or derived. There are, moreover, some anomalous nouns
differing from the usual forms of declension, and developing others
peculiar to themselves.
FIRST ORDER,
Substantives and adjectives of the masculine and neuter genders
agree in their declensions. Those of the feminine gender follow
their own forms. I shall give first a scheme of all the forms
of declension, which I call series, with examples of each ; and
then substantives and adjectives from the codices confirming the
forms of all the series here exhibited, or even such as present any of
their varieties,
DECLENSION OF NOUNS MoscuUne and Neuter,
Paradigms : I. — Cele (a companion). It has not appeared so neces-
sary to give derivative examples of this first series, such as echire (a
horseman, a muleteer?), tectire (an envoy), as of the follomng, on
account of the internal vowels inflected : II. hall (a member), pri-
mitive, tuisel (a case), derivative example. III. bith (the world), pri-
mitive, dilgud (forgiveness), derivative.
The neuter dififers so far from the masculine, that the accusa-
tive and vocativeconsists of some substantives in /m, wi, taking in the gen.
sing, -a or -e; in the dat. -im^ with duplicated m ; and in the plural
either an or e/z, these two endings forming two distinct classes. In the
first (a), the noun nuim, of constant occurrence, is proved to be of the
neut. gender, from the passage (Sg. o^) : ashclirruidig. anainmsinJ^ (this
noun is derived). Of the same gender, no doubt, are all other nouns
of this form. Of the second class (b) but few examples occur, and these
not uniform. There is no instance of a vocative in this or any of
the other series.
SINGULAR.
NoM. — (a) ainm, ainmm (a name), Wb. Sg. passim.
(b) beim (a blow), ingrehn (persecution), Wb. IS*^.
Gen — (a) indanma dilis (of the proper name), Sg. 26*', (b) no example found
in codices.
Dat. (a) isinanmim inchoimded ihu. cr. (in the name of the Lord J. Ch.),
Wb. 9«.
(b) ocmingraimmaimse (at my persecution), Ml. 33*.
Ace (a) cen ainm (without a name), Sg. 211*.
(b) ni agathar dingreim (his persecution is not acted), Wb. 1*.
PLURAL.
NoM. — (a) asbertar ananmon (their names are mentioned), Wb. 28*.
(b) bemen digle (the strokes of revenge), Wb. 17^.
GEN.=^(a) diall nanmann (declension of nouns), Sg. 27*.
(\))foditiu nan ingremmen (endurance of the persecutions), Wb. 23".
Dat. — (a), inanmanaib lait. (in Latin names), Sg. 6* ; (b) no example known ;
b€mnU> in the table is, therefore, hypothetical.
Ace. — (a) tre anman (by nouns), Sg. 29*.
II. Series. — Consists of nouns taking in the oblique cases an, in, and
in en, whence two divisions. To the first belong derivatives in -mm,
-man, -mn (which is reduced, however, in the nominative to -me, or -m
only), and nouns of later derivation in -la which also in the nom. be-
comes -m, -w. In the oblique cases singular, likewise, especially the
dative, other curtailed forms are found by the side of the fuller.
These fuller forms of derivatives appear in the case of secondary
derivatives: menmml/l (gl. dissensiones, from the sing, menmniche;
menme), Wb. IS*", hritheninacht, hrithemnact (judgeship), Wb. &*.
hrithemandu (gl. judiciali, from the nom. brithemande ; brithem),
Ml. 26^ anmanda (pertaining to the soul ; anini), Wb. 13^. talmande
(pertaining to the earth ; talam), Wb. S'^. noidenacht (infancy ;
noidiu, an infant), Wb. 24^^. caintoimtenach (Avell-thinking ; toimtiu),
Ml. 31^ ermituech (gl. reverens; erraitiu), Ml. 32\ For the vowels
a. e, I add brdtharde, brotherly, from brdtldr.
To the second division (b) of this series belong numerous nouns in
tu, derived from verbs (tu for tiu, not to be confounded with mas-
culines in -tu, gen. -tad, of the fourth series, and derived from adjec-
tives). There are other feminines of the second class in -tiu, and in
siu, derived also from verbs. In the first division are met both mascu-
lines, as, brithem, and feminines, as, talam, anim.
'* [Uncontracted form ashdirruidigthe anainmsin.'\
120 Celtic Studies.
SINGULAR.
NoM. — (a) isheo indanim (the soul is liying) Wb. 4*.
(b) toimtiu (supposition), Wb. 23*.
Gen. — (a) roscfornanme (eye of your soul), "Wb. 21*.
(b) dUged remcaissen, dliged remdeicsen, (law of Providence), Ml. 19**.
I) AT. — (a) inim et ialam, inim et il.alam (in Heaven and Earth), Wb. 21*.
(b) oc tuiste duile (at the creation of the elements, i.e., of the world), Wb. 5".
Ace. — (a) accobor lammenmuin (desire in the mind), Wb. Z^.
(b) nerild ar/rescsinni (he strengthens our hope), Wb. 5^.
The final iu, u of the nom. seems to have disappeared from some nouns in t^
as, fortacht (help), bendacht (benediction), Sg.
PLURAL.
NoM. — ^a) matuhe ata horpamin (if these be heirs), Wb. 2^
(6) derbaishdisin (the very pronunciations), Sg. S"*.
Gen. — (a) do ice anman sochuide (for the salvation of many souls), Wb. 24'*.
(Z>) dedliguth innan iltoimddensin (in right of these several opinions), Sg. 26^.
I) AT. — (a) diarnanraanaib (for our souls), Wb. 24^*.
(h) huajoisiinib (from confessions), Sg. 33'\
Ace. — (a) aforciial iccas corpu et arjiiana (the doctrine which heals bodies and
souls), Wb. 30^.
(6) for genitne (gl. by genitives), Sg. 45a.
III. Series. — Of nouns of relationship, mas. and fern, in -i'r, there
is but one class, as e never occurs for a in the interior.
SINGULAR.
NoM. — Athir (father), mathlr (mother), hrdthir (brother), Wb. Sg. passim.
Gen. — BrdtJiir alhar (gl. father's brother), Sg. 56*.
Bat.— Donda/Jiir (to the father), Wb. 13''.
Ace. — Lasinnaildr nemde (with the Heavenly Father), Wb. 19*.
PLURAL.
NoM. — No instances in the codices, aihir by analogy.
Gen. — 3faic indegoid anaihre (sons after their fathers), Wb. 30^
Dat. — Uambraiihrib (from their brothers), Wb. 33^^.
Ace. — Does not occur. I supply mas. aihru, brdthru — fem. mdthra.
IV. Series. — Of derivatives in -/c?, forming in the oblique cases with
the mutable internal vowels two divisions (a) ad, id; (h) ed, id. To the
first belong very frequent nouns in -«, shortened fi'om -id, as -w, -iu,
from -in as above. The ending id, has been preserved only in the word
druid, in the others becoming -e, as : ienge (a tongue), ume (brass). The
terminations of the second class have also become in the nom. -iu, -i,
or -e. The full form of the derivatives here also, as in the second series,
appears in nouns and adj. of secondary derivation: filedacht (poetry;
fill, g^n. filed), Sg. 213'*; oigedaclit (hospitality), ogiWh. 26'' ; to which
I add, Temdon (tene, tened), a GauHsh topographical name. Further
traigiliecli (gl. pedester ; traigid, Wb.) Sg. 38'', 50''.
The nouns of both divisions are masculine.
SINGULAR.
NoM. — (a). Abstract Nouns in u from adjectives are very frequent. The end-
ing is either -ii simple, or the fuller -atu^ -etit.
Adj. of different form taking -u: ar^M (height) ; = arddit, ardu (from art^
ardd, ard), domnu (depth, from domun) Incant. Sg. So also -atu, -etu: ddnatu
daring) Sg. 90*.
Adj. in -ide, -de, -te, taking -« ; oeniu (unity ; adj. Sente, oencfe, Wb. 7**.), corpdu
Appendix^ On the Inflexions of the Noun, 121
(corporality, adj., corpde), Wh. So also, -atu, -etu: fliuchaidatu (humidity,
adj., fl'mcJiaide), Cr. iS^.foirbthetu (firmness), Wb. passim.
(6) colmdiu (Lord), Wb., tene (fire), Sg., 69^
Gen. — (a) tech nebmarbtath (house of immortality"), Wb. 1 5*.
(6) bandea tened (goddess of fire, Vesta), Sg. h'd^.
Dat. — («) ondnephpiandatu (from the impunity), Ml. 28*.
(6) dofilid (to a poet), Sg., 14^
Ace— <«) cen torbatid (without utility), Wb., 12*.
(b) lassincoimdid (with the Lord), Wb., 25'^.
NoM. — (a) dorigensat druid (druids made), Wb. 26*.
(h) intan labraiar indjlid (when the poets speak), Sg., 162*.^
Gen. — (o) from the Irish Annals : Muiredac na iengad (Muiredach [professor]
of the languages) Tlgern. ap. O'Con. 2, 275.
{b) dolbudjiled (poetic fiction), Sg. 71^.
Dat. — sechdapthib (to the agents), W. 19"*.
Ace. — (a) lamafiledasin (with these poets), Sg. 63^.
V. Series. — Of certain feminine nouns in -r, to which are added the
suffixes -ach, -ich^ -ig. The cases, though not all, of the noun Cathir
(a to-\vn), are met with in the codices, and are foUoAved by nathir (a
serpent) with the article in Sg. : indnathlrsin (gl. natrix, i. e. serpens
hie) 69*. doubtlessly, with others in ir. Vestiges of this formation
appear to have been preserved in the modern Irish : caora (a
sheep, old fomi : cdir^ cder ?) Gen. caorach, pi. nom. caoirigh, gen.
caorachj dat. caorchaibh, voc. (ace.) caorcha. It is certainly preserved
in some others in -«>, as : lair (Old Irish ldv\ a mare, Sg. 49b=la-ir),
lasair (a flame), gen. Idrach, lasrach, pi. Idracha, lasracha. Here, also,
the derivative cA, appears in the adj. cdirchuide, Sg. 37 (ovine) ;
compare the Gaulish name Caeracates in Tacitus, and also Car-
acella the name of a Gaulish robe, (for caeracaUa?), but it is want-
ing, however, in trechatharde (gl. tripolites), Sg. 38^
SINGULAR.
NoM. — Cr. dim [din] issi inchathir (therefore Christ himself is the city):.
Wb. 21«.
Gen. — aitribtheid inna cathrach asb. tibur (gl. Tiburs : an inhabitant of the
town which is called Tibur), Sg. 124''.
Dat.— One would expect -ich, -ig, by analogy, but the contracted form of the
nom. obtains in Wb. 13^. : robot issinchaithir (he was in the city).
Ace. — Romuil doforsat [folsat] inca^^rai^' (Romulus founded the city), Sg. 31**.
PLURAL.
NoM. — ilchathraig (many cities), Sg. 13*.
The other cases must be suppUed : Gen. cathrach. Dat. catkrichib (or cathrib?}
Ace. and Voc. cathracha.
Dual Number.
After the twofold formation of the Irish declension, we may here
add a few words concerning this number, on account of its rare occur-
rence in the codices used for all the series given above. It does not,
of itself, denote two persons or things, as for instance in Greek, but
constructed with the numerals dd, di, dihy it presents in the language
122 Celtic Studies.
of our codices mixed sing, and pi. forms, relics no doubt of more
ancient forms peculiar to this number.
The only form of the article in any case or gender, is, in before d,
the initial letter of the numeral, which in one of the following
examples is written dd, hard.
We shall give, first, paradigms of the series of the first order, and
then such examples as occur in the codices. The forms enclosed in
brackets are hypothetical, or formed by analogy.
i&ASC. and neut.
1. Seriea. II. Series.
III. Series.
Nora. cele (i?) bull
bith
Gen. cell (baill)^^
betho
Dat. celib (ballib)
bithib
Ace. cele ball
bith
FEMININE.
IV. Series.
V. Series.
Nora. tuari
rainn
Gen. tuare
rann
Dat. tuaiib
rannib
Ace. tuari
rainn
I. SERIES.
NoM. — The Nom. Masc. appears to occur in the adj. dadiuith cegeptacdi (two
Egyptian Druids) Wb. 30^
Neut. indagne (the two forms), Sg. 1 68*.
Gex. and Dat. — Gen. and diit. are not met.
Ace Mase. or Neut. : dobir dasale. dahir imduda are (llnal, Xtyonepa)
Incant. Sg.^^
II. SERIES.
No3i — Masc. : da mod, (two moods) Sg., IBS'*.
Neut. : comescatar da renH iudib (gl. two genders are mixed up in them), Sg. 6I*.
Gen.— Of the gen. no instances.
Dat. — Neut. : frisgoir hneallininse dolidib dfigedib remepertJdb (this testa-
ment answers to the tvro previous laws), Sg. 193''.
Ace. — imbir indamer (ply the two fingers), Incant. Sg.
III. SERIES.
Nom. — Met da atarcud and (there will be 2 relations there), Sg. 198^
Gen Cechtar da lino (either of the two parts), Sg. 1G2'\
Dat. — Coins. 6 dib nogaib (eonipased of two part.-^), Sg. 98».
Ace. — Andiall foadanog (the declension in both its parts), 98''. Sg.
Neut. : indd err end (gl. stigmata, porto), Wb. 20^*.
IV. SERIES.
Nom. — It digutai bite indeog (there are two vowels in a diphthong), Sg. 18«.
Gen — Fogor dagutoe indeog (the pronunciation of two vowels in a diphthong),
Sg. 18^
72 [xxxv. Recte hall, which aspirates,* must, therefore, have had a vocalic
auslaut (-«3 -«m?) and so cannot possibly be (as Ebel supposes, Beitr. IL, p. 71)
identical with the gen. plur.]
■• We say (e.gf.), athair an da vmcfhionn (father of the two fair sons), caUleach an da adharc
fhionn (hag of the two Avhite hoi nf).
73 [xxxvi. Da sole is salivain tiiain (da for du, do) ; im du da are, '* around
thy two temples" ; are (tempus capitis) gen. arach, is a c-stem. These examples
are, therefore, improper.}
Appendix^ On the Inflexions of the Noun. 123
Dat. — Evidently do dlh guttibJ*
Ace— Adj. in Sg. T^i', indl rainn ingraidi (into two intelligible parts).
V. SERIES.
NoM Di huair (two hours), Cr. 3R
Gen —Cechtar indarann (either of the two parts), Sg. 7i\
Pat.— iVi' chen dliged anephdiall 6 dib rannaih (gl. alteruter, alterutrius non
absque ratione non declinatur ; i. e. non declinatur e duabus partibus), Sg. 75^.
Ace— Coitchenaso etir di drim (common to two numbers^, Sg. 72**.
Duals of tlie second order are very rare. The following are in-
stances : —
Tuicsom inda nainmso (he understands these two names), Wb. 21"^ ; da druith
ageptacdi (two -Egyptian Druids), Wb. 30c.
A nomalous.
Which do not follow a fixed rule and form like all those above
enumerated, but have peculiar and shifting forms of their own.
Of this kind are : dia (God), dla (a day), diune (a man), ben (a
woman), rig (a king). Id (a day).
I. Dia (God), sing. gen. etargne ndee (knovrledge of God), Wb. 21*; dat.
dia (from God); ace. fri dia (Avith God), Wb. 20*^; voc. a due (oh God).
Wb 5^ plur. uom. de iiemdai sou (Heavenly Gods), Sg. i>9'^; dat. do deih (to the
Gods), Sg. 39^; ace. tarma deo (by the Gods), Sg. 217^; Fcm. sing. c?ea,— in
composition bandea (goddess), Sg. 60-' ; plur. bondve (goddesses), Sg. 53^^.
II. Dia (day), each dia (daily), AVb. 13'. ; indlii, hindiu (to day), Wb. ; fride^
fridei (hj day), dia bnUha (in the day of judgment), Wb. 23°.
III. Duineimim) — the radical ui becomes o7in tlie phir.; sing. gen. rorp duini (a
man's body), Wb. 12-^ ; dat. dondnini (to the man), Wb. 4"'; ace. imfohuji indnine
sldn (he saves man), Wb. 4"^ ; voc. a duini (O man), AVb. I'' ; plur. nom. indoini
bi (the living men), Sg. 39** ; gQW. ice iucheueli doine (the salvalion of the race of
men), 20'; AVb. ace. corcefii dia et duini (peace towards God and men), Wb. 20'^
IV. Ben (woman) — interchanges with the forms ban., mnd: iccje inumdi (thou
wilt heal the woman), Wb. 10".
V. Rig (king), sing. gen. ilaig rig (in the king's house), Wb. 23^^; dat. ainm
diarig (gl. Lar rex Vejentorum, i. e.', the name of their king), Sg. 64^1; plur. gen.
hi lebraibrig (in the books of kings), Ml. 30'^; a<x. conroibtis ocdemtm rectche^
la riga (gl. volente? esse legis dof'tores,i. e., to the kings),Wb. 28=*.
VI. Za(day)i^ inflected from the form^- /«, iae, and loilhe, lotJie (neuter). Sing.
n. alaithe, Ml. 21'' ; gen. annni maiec lai (we are the sons of day), Wb. 25° ; dat.
illau baiss (in the day of death), AVb. 2!)'= ; acc./zi laa bruiha (to doomsday), Wb.
29'*; plur. gen. ar lin laithe (in the number of days), Ml. 17'*.
(3) Dlmimdives,
Common to both subst. and adj., like the declension of the first
order. The instances that occur, especially in codex Sg. present the
following terminations, -dn^ -en^ and -that., which are more usual in
the mas. and neut., and -ene^ -ne, -not, -net in the fern.
Masc. and neut. AN in substantives: duindn (a mannikin), Sg. 47^*. tdiddn
from tdid (a thief), 47^. In adjectives becan (gl. pauUulus), Sg. 48'', trogdn
(gL misellus), 48*.
'* [xxxvii. Rather do dib hguttib, where dibn= the Sansk. dwdbhydm^ Greek
ivdiv (from ^uo^tv).]
124 Celtic Studies.
Numerous old proper names have the same endmg : Tresan, Gibrian, Veran
Abran, Petran (vita S. Tresani, Boll., Febr. 2, 53).
En : duinen (mannikin), Sg. 45*.
That: srdthathat (gl. a sting), Sg. 47*. centat (gl. capitulum), 47*. Chat,
Nat, Net, are less frequent : duinenet (gl. a mannikin), 45^.
Fem. Ene : larene (from lair, a mare), Sg. 49^.
Nat in subst. : siurnat (gl. sororeula), 46''. talamnat (gl. terrula), 48*.
Net, Nit i fochricnet (gl. mercedula), 47*. tonnait (gl. cuticula), 46^
(O Degrees of Comparison,
Comparative and superlative. The forms of the first, in the old
language, are the more copious, these are either regular or irregular.
COMPARATIVE.
Of this there are two forms, -ithir, -iu, -u, — ^the first of which may
be compared Avith the Greek orspog, and the second mth the old
Latin -ios, -ius, the 5 of which passes into r. It is indeclinable.
Ithir I have only met in one codex Wb., and in one passage 27^ : islerithir.
lu and u are used indifferently, though the former is more usual in mono--
syllables, the latter in polysyllables. The particle de is often met after the com-
parative, corresponding seemingly to the Latin eo.
lu : nibia di mutaib bes huilliu moemifl. (there cannot be more of mutes in one
syllable), Sg. 7*. leriu (gl. more industrious), 41*. semiu (gl. more slender), 14''.
goiriu (gl. more pious), 40''.
U: oillu oldate cdiccet for (more than fifty men), Wb. IS"*; isassii, ba assu
(easier), Wb. 15'=; atalobru (that are weaker), Wb. 12'' ; gliccu (wiser), Wb. 26"^ ;
istairismechu infer (the man is stronger), Wb. 28''. There are some anomalous
comparatives either in a, which sometimes becomes o, or with peculiar forms of
their own. Of the former the principal are : — mda, mdo, mda, moo (greater),
messa (worse), nessa (nearer), tressa (stronger). Besides da (less), Ua (more),
ire (ulterior), /e/7- (better).
Mda from adj. mar (great), for which mdr also occurs. From the form
mar are produced mda, md, mdo : asmda alailiu (greater than another), Wb.
12*. From mdr are made mda, mdo, md : mda leu sercc atuile (greater with
them is the love of their own will), Wb. 30'' ; Jresciu fogchricce asmdo (hope
of the reward, which is greater), Wb. 10"=.
Messa (worse) : fodaimid nech asmessa duih (endure one who is worse to you),
Wb. 17''; crehmechsin asmessa ancreitmech (this believer is worse than an
infidel), Wb..28d.
Nessa (naarer) : isnesa do geintih (he is nearer to the Gentiles), Wb. 2* ; innahi
ata nessa (those which are nearer), Cr. 44*.
Tressa (stronger) : combad tressade hiress apstal do fulung (th&t the faith of the
Apostles might be stronger to suffer), Wb. 25*. ishe dim [din ?] ambes adi inti diib
bes fresa orcaid alaUe (it is their habit that the stronger kill the weaker) Ml. 19'*
The three following comparatives, on account of the verbs accompanying
them regularly in the sing., appear to have been originally substantives, with
a comparative signification. They also sometimes act as adverbs in their naked
form.
Oa (less) : acoic indid oa q. xxx (gl. by the fifth less than thirty) Cr., 33*.
Lia (more, a greater number) : nabad Ua diis no thriur dam (let there be not
more than two or three) ; itlia sillaba a illitrib (there are more syllables of many
letters), Sg. 71*.
Ire (ulterior): aither. ni ashire olddtam. ocus aui (patronymics no further thsm
sons and grandchildren), Sg. 30*'.
Ferr (better) : niferr nech alailiu and (no one better than another there), Wb.
2a; nipatforr de (they are not better of it), Wb. 12*.
In the majority of the foregoing examples, the particle as^ preceding the com-
Appendix y On the Inflexions of the Noun. 125
parative, is evidently the verb subst. 3 pers. sing, in dependent position. It is
often, however, a different word, increasing the sense of the gradation, ex. gr.
the comparative : ni asse acleith rafitir aslia (it cannot be easily concealed, many
know it), Wb. 23'^, or of the superlative : asmaam. The comparative is still
further increased by its repetition with the intervening formula ass : corrop moo
assa moo et ccrrop ferr assa ferr donimdigidesseirc [donimdigid desseirc] de et
comnessim (so that it may be better and better, you increase your love of God and
[your] neighbour), Wb.23^ -.ferr asaferr (better and better), Wb. 15^
SUPERLATIVE.
There are two endings, -em and -am^ the former of adjectives
which form their comparatives in -m -w, the latter of anomalous
adjectives ending in a in the comparative. Internal inflexion in
-am occurs.
Em : fa'illsem (gl. most clear, lucid, from foUus, open, clear), Cr. 40*, tdisigem
(gl, the first; in the verse: primus de Danaum magna comitante caterva),
Sg. 42».
The following are instances of the fuller form, -zwem, -ihem, -hem after a double
consonant or diphthong radical : huaislimem (the highest), Ml. 28^^, itdoini saibi-
bem dogniatinso (they are most false men who do this, — from saib false, or pro-
perly delusive), Ml. 8*.
Am : oam (gl. the least), Wb. IS*', asmaam rosechestar arsidetaid (it is he has
followed the greatest antiquity), Sg. 208^, ata nessam (the nearest) Incant. Sg.
comnesam (the neighbour [lit. " nearest]). Ml. 36*. Gen. : desserc de et comnessim
(love of God and our neighbour), Wb. 23b. Dat. : ho chomnesam (from the
neighbour), Ml. 36*. Ace : galar bess fairechomnessam (the disease which is
over one's neighbour), Cod. Camar. athis forachomnesam (reproach against his
neighbour), Ml. 36*.
[Just as the preceding pages were going to press, the Archasological
and Celtic Society's new volume was published : " Irish Glosses ; a
Mediasval Tract on Latin Declension, with examples explained in
Irish", to which are added the " Lorica of Gildas", with the gloss
thereon, and a selection of glosses from the Book of Armagh. Edited
by Whitley Stokes, A.B. I much regret that this work had not
made its appearance sooner, as it would have enabled me, in drawing
up my introduction, to introduce illustrative examples from the Irish,
along with those from the Gothic, Greek, and Latin, and thus ren-
dered it more directly useful for the object I had in view in pre-
paring it. As the book contains much that illustrates the subject of
the preceding pages, or that is actually supplementary to them, I
cannot help describing it for the information of such of the readers
of these pages as may not be members of the Archaeological and Celtic
Society, for the members of which it has been exclusively printed.
The book consists essentially of three parts: 1. of the tract on
Latin Declension ; 2. of the commentary upon it ; and 3. of the
indices verhorum. The tract on Latin Declension is of itself of no
value whatever, and was selected for publication solely because of
the " large number of Irish Avords which are placed as glosses to the
Latin vocables exemplifying the different declensions". These words,
126 Celtic Studies.
many of wliicli are not given in our dictionaries, amount to 1139.
The commentary consists of a discussion of the meanings of these
words, in most cases of their grammatical analysis, and of comparisons
with other Celtic dialects, and with the Indo-European languages
generally. Every word which occurs in the original MS., and those
with which the Irish words have been compared by the commentator,
are to be found in the indices verborum^ which, from their complete-
ness, form a most important feature of the work. A mere enumera-
tion of the separate indices will best convey an idea of the character
of the commentary from the point of view of comparative philology.
They are : 1. Old Celtic index ; 2. Old Irish do. ; 3. Middle Irish do. ;
4. Welsh do. ; 5. Cornish do. ; 6. Breton do. ; 7. Latin do. ; 8. Me-
diaeval do. ; 9. Greek do. ; 10. Sanskrit do ; 11. Zend do. ; 12. Gothic
do. ; 13. Anglo-Saxon do. ; 14. English do. ; 15. Old High German.
In point of varied learning, skill, and cautious discretion in the
grammatical analysis, the work is unquestionably the best contribu-
tion to the comparative philology of the Celtic languages which has
yet appeared in the English language, and may fully rank with any
similar works by German or French scholars. It is at once a valuable
and a timely contribution towards the materials for making an Irish
dictionary, and as such the Archaeological and Celtic Society has well
expended its funds in the publication of it.
The most valuable feature of the work in question, so far as regards
the Celtic studies of Dy. Ebcl, is, however, the large number of para-
digms of the dec^lension of Irish nouns and adjectives which it con-'
tains. For the purposes of reference, I think it will be useful to
enumerate them all.
Masculine, neuter, and feminine a- and a-stems : nora. sing, cenn, stem cinna
(masc), p. 39 ; nom. sing.forcetal (h), stem forcitala (neut.), p. 51 ; nom. sing,
masc. 7jiall, an adjectival stem, p. 97 ; nom. sing, rami, stem rannd (fern, or «-
stem), p. 38 ; nom. sing, t/m, a masc. a-stem, p. 45.
Masculine and feminine la- stems: nom. sing, rannaire, stem ranndria (masc),
p. 37 ; nom. sing. ca/7e, stem calid (fem.), p. 54 ; nom. sing. masc. nwe, an adjec-
tival m-stem, p. 97.
Masculine and neuter i-stems; nom. sing, faith, stem fdthi (masc.), p. 36;
nom. smg. Jiss, stem Jissi (neut.), p. 117.
Masculine t(-stems : nom sing, bithf stem hithu (masc), p. 62.
Masculine (/-stems : nom. sing.Jili, stem Jilid (masc), p. 36.
Masculine _9-stem : nom. sing, rig, a masculine f/-stem, p. 119.
Feminine n-stem : nom. sing, talam, stem talamany p. 48.
J,?i^-stems : nom. sing, caro, stem carat, from carant (masc), p. 65. A para-
digm of the declension of ainm (ii) which was probably originally an an^-stem,
but which, Stokes says, was in Old Irish a neuter ann-stera, is also given at p. 116.
Masculine r-stem : nom. sing, atlm; stem athar, p. 39.
C-st€ms : nom. sing, cathir. According to Ebel (see p. 94), cathir is an r-
stem, taking the determinative suffix c, but Stokes considers it to be a c-stem,
p. 38.
Anomalous nouns : nom. sing, ben, all the singular and plural forms of which
are given, p. 121.
At p. 45 a paradigm of the declension of the article is also given.
What renders these paradigms the more valuable is, that in almost
Hieroglyphic Studies. 127
every case the forms of the dual number are also given. As several
of the words declined by Zeuss and Dr. Ebel are also declined by
Mr. Stokes, the corresponding paradigms of each writer may be in-
structively compared.
Dr. Ebol's papers are frequently referred to in Mr. Stokes's book,
and as each may be said to, in a measure, supplement the other,
the almost simultaneous appearance of the preceding translation of
the Celtic Studies, and of the admirably edited book in question, may
be deemed a fortunate coincidence. I hope, also, that the introduc-
tion which I found myself compelled to prefix to the papers of Dr.
Ebel may likcAvise enable a larger circle of readers to appreciate the
importance of Mr. Stokes's contribution towards our more perfect
knowledge of the language of Ancient Erum.]
Art. IV. — Hieroglyphic Studies, No. II. — By P. Le Page
Rexouf.
HORAPOLLO tells us,' in the first book of the Hieroglyphica,
that the sun was worshipped at Heliopolis under the form
of a Cat. This statement is confirmed by the " Book of the Dead",
in a very curious passage, of which I here give a translation and
grammatical analysis.^ These, as will at once be apparent, are
not intended for the enlightenment of those learned Egyptolo-
gists, to whom this pas.^age has long been familiar, and to whom
it presents no greater difiiculty than the commonest sentence
in their mother tongue. The present paper, like my two pre-
vious articles, is intended for a class of readers who are not yet
able fi^illy to profit by the more learned labom*s of the masters of
the science, in whose writings much information is presupposed,
which has never been brought together in a grammar and dic-
tionary, but lies scattered in a hundred different French, Eng-
lish, German, and Italian publications, many of them not gene-
rally accessible.'*
"O0€j/ Kai TO sv HXc'ou TroXei ^oavov rov Qfov aiXovpSfiopfov virapxfi' 1, 10.
^ For an explanation of the transcription of the hieroglyphs into Roman
characters, see Atlantis, No. iv. p. 339.
Most of the hieroglyphic texts quoted by way of illustration in this article,
are taken from the Todtenbuch (Leipzig, 1842), a book of reference more con-
venient, both for the reader and for myself, than the splendid but expensive and
unwieldy collections of Rosellini, Champollion, and Lepsius. The Abbreviation
" Chapter" (or Chap.) will, therefore, always refer to a chapter of the Todten-
buch. The numerals inclosed within ( ) are references to the first lithograpliic
plate accompanying this article.
128 Hieroglyphic Studies.
The passage of the " Ritual", or " Book of the Dead", to
which I refer, is found in the 17th Chapter, described by Mr.
Birch* (in accordance with its title), as containing " the portion
requisite to be known, in order to let the blessed out of the
Hades, to enter the service of Osiris, and to enable him to make
the requisite transformation, or transmigration. This remarkable
part", he adds, " contains a number of singular mystic interpreta-
tions, which the deceased had to answer when asked — a kind of
theological examination of his knowledge and faith". In tliis
strange catechism, the deceased seems, at least in certain portions
of it, to be addressed by a number of speakers, each of whom pre-
dicates something of himself, as *' I am the great Pho3nix residing
in Heliopolis". " I am Min ( ?) in his two manifest a tions — two fea-
thers are placed upon his head". " I am the great Cat in the grove
of Persea trees in Heliopolis". The deceased then, in obedience
to a rubric, explains, that " the Phoenix is Osiris, residing in
Hehopolis" ; or that " Min is Horus, the avenger of his father ;
that his two manifestations are his births, and that the feathers
upon his head are the goddesses Isis and Nephthys walking".
In many places, however, explanations are given, without having
been called for in the manner just described, and rubrics are left
out where they might have been expected. Invocations are ad-
dressed to various gods in diOferent parts of the chapter, sometimes
imploring for protection against terrible divinities, which were sup-
posed to inflict punishment upon evil doers, and the desciiptions of
which remind us of the " fiera compagnia", described by Dante in
the fifth bolgia of his Inferno,^ A formula, of which the terms
vary, whilst the substance remains the same, frequently occurs,
stating, that " this is a day", or " a night" for doing battle, or
inflicting injury upon the enemies of Osiris. The explanations
given are sometimes, as Mr. Birch says, of a singularly mystical
description ; they are, however, sometimes very plain and straight-
forward, and in the passage presently to be noticed of a rather
rationalistic character.^ The 17th Chapter, Hke almost every
* Introduction to the study of Egyptian hieroglyphs, p. 272.
* Cantos XXI. and XXII.—
E Ciriatto, a cui di bocca uscia
D'ogni parte una sanna, come a porco,
Gli fe sentir come I'una sdruccia:
Tra male gatte era venuto '1 sorco.
The " male gatte" of the Egyptian Inferno were not necessarily evil spirits
like Ciriatto, Graffiacane, and their fellows. In the 125th Chap. (1. 36) of
the Ritual, the deceased prays to be delivered from a god who is elsewhere
(Chap. 63, 2) described as the eldest son of Osiris, and (Chap. 18, 30) as one
of the principal divinities of the city of Narotf.
6 Two words of constant occurrence in inscriptions, are thus explained : —
HeH PU HeNA T'eTa AR HeH HRU PU AR T'eTa KeR HU
Ever and ever, " Ileh" is day '^ T'eTa" is niyht.
TLATJi: 1.
AR
5ckAV
TTI
r-^ cirri"
OD *-
2^
TV
Sc-iiV
5^ cX-T
3
bn r'*''
^3
i '*'
-M
±i.
}*«.-N'
JJL
Altl-
tVPtX
S.VAU
P
rC
L
I /
SA.I
T
■ye
*n
Hieroglyphic Studies. 129
otlier in the " Todtenbuch", is full of various readings, between
which, the scribes who Avrote out copies of the Ritual, thought
it no part of their business to discriminate.' These different read-
ings, however incoherent or contradictory, were simply incorpo-
rated into the text, and are only distinguished from each other
by the words KI T'aT, " otherwise said". Thus we find " his
eyes are the two feathers upon his head", after the explanation
just quoted in favour of Isis and Nephthys. All these readings
were probably looked upon as equally sacred. The first part of
our 17th Chapter is found on the walls of a tomb, as old as the
eighteenth dynasty, at el Kurnah, and that inscription^ contains
the very same text and different readings as the Turin Papyrus
Copy.
This short introduction will suffice to give the reader an idea,
of the context, or rather absence of context, in which the passage
is found which I now proceed to explain. Its purport is this.
" The great Cat in the Persea grove at Heliopolis, is the Sun-
God Ra, who, in consequence of his calling another divinity
Schau instead of Sau, was himself nicknamed Schau, the Egyp-
tian word signifying Cat".
Our text^ (See Plate I., A) is naturally divided into the three
propositions of which it is composed ; the first consisting of the
first fourteen groups, which must be read and literally translated
as follows . —
(1) (2) X3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
AR SchAU PFI Aa eNTI HeR Pe-ScheT ASchT eR-Ma-F eM
Est felis ilia magna quce (est) in luco Persearum, hi loco ejus, in
(U) (12) (13) (U)
AN RA PU T'eSeF
Eeliopoli Sol ..., ipsa (sc. felis).
' These various readings must not be confounded with the " variants" so fre-
quently mentioned in these pages, and which are simply different ways of writing
the same word, with signs phonetically equivalent. The various readings alluded
to are hke the " varias lectiones" of the Bible, or the Classics. One reading may
be "Osiris", another "Ra"; for " CheNT" walk, another reading may have
•'CheNF" loork: sometimes the same word maybe written in two different
readings with different determinatives, and therefore with different meanings.
Sometimes the differences between the readings are much greater than I have
stated. All, however, are incorporated into the text of the Ritual. Some MSB.
are less rich than others in various readings, but it is doubtful whether this is to
be attributed to the critical taste of the scribe.
^ Lepfiius Denkmiiler III. i38. The most remarkable variant furnished by the
text of this tomb, is that (30) of the name of the ithy phallic Ammon, which I
have read " Min", like Dr. Brugsch and (at one time at least) M. de Rouge. It
must be confessed that this variant is favourable to none of the readings hitherto
proposed, but seems rather to point out some name ending in S, like that of tho
t>^'' AS, frequently represented on the monuments.
Todt. Chap. 17, lines 46, 47, 48. In the vignette, a cat is seen seated under
a Persea tree, and in the act of putting its paw upon the head of a serpent.
III. 9
130 Hieroglyphic Studies.
The simple proposition " ^ is ?/", may be expressed in Egyp-
tian by the form AK os y. An equally common form is
AR X y PU, to which may be added the pronoun T'eSeF ipse,
referring to the subject of the proposition, and the whole AR x y
PU T'eSeF may be translated " ^, the same is y'\ Such is the
form of the sentence now to be analysed.
(1) The use of the particle AR, which corresponds to the
Coptic epe, was to some extent illustrated in the last number of
this journal. It represents the *' substantive" verb, stands at the
beginning of a proposition, and remains invariable, whatever
be the gender or number of the subject. According to Cham-
pollion, it accompanies the third person only. This rule appears
to be true, with respect to purely categorical propositions, but
in hypothetical, optative, imperative, and interrogative phrases,
the particle in question discharges a very remarkable function,
of which the rubrics of the Ritual aiFord numerous examples.
Such phrases as " Is any man called being uncircumcised ? let
him not procure uncircumcision". " Art thou bound to a wife?
seek not to be loosed", are equivalent to '* ^/any man is called",
etc., " if thou art bound", etc. In all such sentences in Egyptian,
the word AR, which begins them, appears to be really changed
into the conjunction if.
Thus, in the rubric of the 86th Chapter (1. 8) : —
ARKeCh SchA TeN AU-F PiR-F eM HRu eM NeTcR-KeR
Is known hook this ? i j- ^i ^ ^7 j • tt j
i.e., If this hook be known. \ ^^ goes forth from the day m Hades,
AK-F eM-CheT PiR-F AR CheM Ra PeN AN AK-F
Ac enters after .oin, cut,'' { ,e.,'?/-ML&Slf4 *^ '"''" »'''
eM-CheT PiR-F
after going out. ^
Again (Chap. 101, 6):—
AR TaTa-TU-NeF NeN UT'-U" eR CheChU-F UN-NeF AM eM
If there be placed to him these talismans at his neck he becomes there like
"^ This was one of the great privileges of the beatified. The Chapter (No. 13,
Cf. c. 121) " of entering after going out", begins
AK-NA eM BAK PiR-NA eM BeNNU
I entered as the Hawk, Iwentforth as the Phanix,
that is, in the forms of the divine Hawk and Phoenix. (Cf. the vignette to Chap.
46). In the 77th Chapter, the deceased makes his transformations in the form
of " the beautiful Hawk of gold with the head of a Phoenix", to hear whose
voice the sun pauses on his course. A transformation less flattering, to modern
ideas at least, is that into a golden monkey. It is said of the deceased (Chap.
42, 22) -
eNTeF KeFTeN NuB eN NeTeR^U AN A(?)UI-F AN RaT-(TI)-F
Hie (est) simius aureus deorum, non (sunt) brachia illi, non pedes illi.
See the group KeFTeN, Sharpe Eg. Inscr., pi. 57, 1. 36, 2nd series.
* ' Coptic CCX^Ij sanare, salvare.
Hieroglyphic Studies. 131
Fu-T NuTeR-U SAM eM ScheS-U HoR AU SMeN-NeF
the gods, he is gathered to the ministers ofHorus, and there is set up for him
ChaBeS-eFi2 AN HeSe^a eM PeT eR-Ma NeTeR SoPT Sche SeF
his Lamp through Isis in Heaven where the divine Dog-Star is, he serves
HoR AM NeTeR SoPT
Horus in the divine Dog-Star.
In another Chapter we are told (130, 27) : —
AR ARi-TU-NeF NeN UN-N Ba-F ANCh eR HeH AN MuT-eF eM
If there be done to him thus, becometh his soul living for ever, he dieth not for
NeM
a second time.^*
In the following example, which is not the only one of its
kind,^^ the subject (ChlJ, the departed) of the apodosis is thrust
into the protasis. (Chap. 136, 12) : —
AR ChU ARi-TU-NeF NeN AU-F eM MA ANCh-U AN
The departed, if there be done to him thus, he will be in the place of the living, he
SeK-eF T'eTa
suffereth not for ever.
In the examples just quoted, it might seem that the use of AR
in no wise differed from that of the auxiliary verb in other
languages, or from that of its synonyms AU or UN in Egyptian.
We have a parallel passage in which UN seems to play the same
part (Chap. 140,12):—
'2 Or Star. See Brugsch, Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenliindischen Gesell-
schaft, ix. p. 514 on the CheBaS-U, or Decans.
'^ Since the pubHcation of the last number of the Atlantis, I have received an
important communication with reference to the reading of the hieroglyphic name
of Isis, from a scholar, whose lightest word in a matter of this kind is of the
greatest weight. I have also seen M. Deveria's " Notice de quelques Antiquites
relatives au basilicogrammate Thouth ou Teti", containing a note on the hiero-
glyphic name of Osiris. I am myself in possession of other evidence wliich I
have as yet been unable to verify. I retain, therefore, provisionally, the readings
HeS and HeSARi, until I can discuss the whole evidence on the question.
** The 44th Chapter of the Ritual is entitled " The Chapter of not dying for a
second time, in Hades". The promise of not dying a second time, or for ever,
but of renewing one's life like the sun daily, is extremely frequent in all texts
referring to the condition of the dead.
The deceased says (Chap. 38, 2) —
PeTHU-A Re-A AM-A eM ANCh ANCh-A eM TaTaU NeM-A ANCh-A
I open my mouth, I feed upon life, I live in Tattu (i) Irenew my life
eMCheT MuT RA Scha Ra NeB
after death like the Sun, every day.
The fine sarcophagus in the British Museum, which was supposed by Dr.
Clarke to have been that of Alexander, contains the following assurance : —
ANCh ReN-K AP To AN SeK-eK AN HTuM-K eN T'eT T'eTa
Vivit nomen tuum in terrd, non noceris, non peribis in corpore in ceternum
And in another line —
AN MuT-eK T'eTa
non morieris in ceternum.
See the engraving— Description de I'Egypte Antiquites, v , pi. 40, 5. 6.
^^ '^ Compare (Chap. 148, 4) AR ChU NeB ARi-TU-NeF SchA TeN
"Every dead man, if there be made for him this writing", his soul goes forth, etc.
D B
132 ' Hieroglyphic Studies.
UN T'aT Re PeN eM UA eN RA AU STa-TU-F HeNA NeN
Being said^^ this chapter in the bark of the Sun he is towed along with these
NeTeR-U UN-NeF SchA UA AM-SeN
gods he becomes like one of them.
Many instances, however, occur, in wliich AR seems altogether
to lose its character of auxiliary verb, and Champollion's rule
about the third person ceases to hold good. Some examples
may be seen in M. de Rouge's " Essai sur im Stele Egyptienne",
p. 108.
AR ABeK SeCheR eM KoRaH HaP-To AU-F ChePeR
Si velis excogitare in nocte diem ipsejiet.
AR T'aT-eK eN MU
If thou saidst to the water.
AR T'aT-eK T'eSeK eN TeF-eK HaPI-MU ATF-NuTeR-U'^
If thou saidst thyself to thy father, the Nile, the father of the gods.
AR Ta-K HRa-K eR CheNSu.
Si converteris os tuum ad Chons.
Or, as Mr. Birch translates it, " Would you lift up thy face to
Chons ?" M. de Rouge calls it a " formule de priere polie".
Some few clear traces of the optative use of AR are still to be
found in the Coptic: Sitir} <joi 6 Qiog (Gen., xxvii. 28), has been
translated by epe cj)^ "j" It^LK, and aTroort/Xai Kvpiog (Deut.,
xxviii. 8) by epe n6c OTCDpU. But, in fact, wherever we
find the particle e implying a condition, we may be sure that its
true hieroglyphic equivalent is AR, the consonant R having
been dropped here as in a multitude of other words. The Coptic
conjunction ecyooil if, is really made up of e, and the verb
cgcon, ^0 6e, in hieroglyphics AR ChePeR, i.e., " Should it be?"
So, again, the negative forms eojTeJUL, ^.peajTeJUL, the
Sahidic epeTJUL, and the Bashmuric ^XeojTeJUL correspond
to the hieroglyphic AR TeM, as in the 7th Chapter of the
Ritual (1. 3).
AR TeM-K KANN AN KANN-A-NeK's
If thou dost not wait (9) I loait not for thee.
(2) SchAU, a Cat, Coptic cy^T. This word is written with three
'^ The rubric of Chapter 18 (1. 39) begins with a participle put " absolutely".
T'aT-TU Re PeN UBe PiR PU eM HRu . . .
Being said this pure chapter, he goes forth from the day.
Cf. 19, 14—
TaT-TU Re PeN HeR MAHU NeTeR eRTA eM HRa eN SA
Being said this Chapter over a divine Crown placed upon thejace of a person.
^"^ Prisse Monumens Egyptiens, pi. xxi., 1. 21. Compare Mr. Birch's transla-
tions Archaeologia, vol. xxxiv., 368.
'** I am not sure that I have hit the sense of the verb KANN, the determina-
tive of which (a^man at rest) points to some verb like the Coptic KHIt, quiescere,
permanere, etc.
Hieroglyphic Studies^ 133
letters and a determinative. The first letter of the word was iden-
tified by Cliampollion with the Coptic Clj, in consequence of the
evident identity between certain hieroglyphic groups containing
it, and well knoTVTi Coptic words. This kind of proof, however,
is not sufficient, as a comparison between Coptic words and their
more ancient forms, has proved that in many instances the hiero-
glyphic sign corresponding to Clj is not Sch but Ch. Most of Cham-
poUion's successors have, in consequence, transcribed our sign by
Ch. Other very strong reasons have been given for this tran-
scription, particularly by M. de Rouge. ^^ None of them, how-
ever, are absolutely conclusive, whilst, on the other hand. Dr.
Brugsch has shown that in very ancient times, a certain substance
called " Sche SeT" (31) was written (32) with the sign in question
as its first letter. This authority, even if it be not supposed to
settle the question, is sufficient to justify us in continuing to use
the value assigned by Champolhon. The difficulty of attaining
absolute certainty in the present case arises from the fact, that
at all periods of the Egyptian language, the closest affinity,
and even interchange, existed between the sounds Ch and Sch.
There are variants in which the word ANCh, life, is written
ANSch ; and the word AChoM, an eagle, ASchoM. The months
called JUiexiP and m^XP^^ at Memphis, were called JUteojip
and n^LOjOnc at Thebes, and the later inhabitants of Egypt
have kept the double forms Emschir and Mdchir. The city
called by the Greeks, Chemmis, is written in Coptic both
Schmin and Chmin. The Greek ^ ^^ ^^ words apxi-
liav^pirriQ, yzLpoTovia, is found in Coptic texts transcribed by a
In Hne forty-five, the word SchAU is followed by the picture
of a Cat, as its determinative. In our text, this ideograph is
replaced by the linear hieroglyph representing the skin of an
animal. On referring to Champollion's Grammar (p. 82), it will
be seen that this sign is found after such words as ape, pig, lion,
y^olf, etc., and is, therefore, rightly considered as the generic
determinative of quadrupeds.
The use of these non-phonetic signs, which Champollion's
opponents represented as offiaring insurmountable difficulties,
really render the most precious service in the decipherment of
texts. This is true, not only of the direct ideographic represen-
tations of the idea expressed, as when a cat is drawn after the
word SchAU, or a horse after HToR, but in the case of generic
determinatives, like that which applies equally to all quadrupeds.
1 he group ACheM (33), for instance, is found with three determi-
'^ Tombeau d' Ahmes, p. 84.
134 Hieroglyphic Studies.
natives. Of these, the arm, with the hand grasping a weapon, is
known to be attached to all words expressive of energetic and
successful action. The small cross above the arm is found under
the same circumstances. The three lines are expressive of water.
The first time then that we meet this group before a word meaning
fire, we may be perfectly sure that the action exercised by water
upon that element, and expressed by the word ACheM, is that
of extinguishing, and that this sense will be borne out by the
context. Thus, in the negative Confession of the Ritual (125,
10)-
AN ACheM-A CheT eM UNNuT-S
I have not extinguished thejlame in its hour.
Or, in the 22nd Chapter (1. 2, 3)—
I-NA AEi-A MeR-TU HeT-A eM HRu eN Ne SeRT ACheM-A
I am come, I do the will of my heart in the day oj fire^ I quench
URT eM PiR-S
the flame on its coming forth.
In another chapter of the Ritual (149, 55), we find the verb
before another substantive, but with the same fundamental sense.
It is said of one of the infernal abodes^® whose waters are of flame,
TeM SAU MU-S AN ACheM eN ABU-SeN eNTI eM-S
non hibitur aqua ejus, non extinguitur sitis eorum qui (sunt) in ea.
And, in the next line —
AN ACheM eN ABU-SeN AN HoTeP HeT-SeN
non extinguitur sitis eorum, non requiescit cor eorum.
In this particular instance, it is easy for us to identify ACheM
with the Coptic OOjeJUL ; but even if this were not possible, the
meaning would be undeniable. Still farther light is thrown
upon the word when we meet it with the determinative of fire,
and consequently with the meaning consume.
(3) PFI, the masculine demonstrative pronoun, on which see
ChampolHon's Grammar, p. 182.
'" The 13th. Although the waters are described as being of an intolerable heat,
and also full of " weeds and filth", the deceased invokes (1. 57) the presiding deitj
of this abode to enable him to prevail over those waters and to drink of thera.
In the same way, the ninth abode (1. 33, 37) is so terrible that the dead tremble
to mention its name ; there is no entering in, or going out of it ; iti gate is of
fire, and the air within it, which destroys the nostrils, cannot be breathed. Yet
the deceased invokes the god within it as follows : —
ANeT'-K NeTeR PUl AS eM SUH-F I-NA CheR-K UN-NA eM
Hail to thee, Oh venerable god in thine egg, I have come to thee, I have become
ScheSe-K PiR-NA AK-NA eM AKeN UN-NA Re-U-S
thy servant, I have gone out, I have come into the abode, I have opened its doors,
SeNSeN-A NiF-U AM-S ANChA eM HoTeP-U-S ChU-A AM-S
I breathe the airs in it, I live upon its bread, I shine (?) in it.
(I have kept the words " weeds and fllth", on the authority of Mr. Birch.
Introduction, p. 275. But I suspect that the word translated ^/M, is one
which I should rather render stubble or thorns, Copt. pCIOOTI or^pCOOTl).
Hieroglyphic Studies. 135
(4) Aa, great. The meaning of tliis group is ascertained from
the Rosetta Inscription, where ChampoUion found it to corres-
pond with the Greek jueyag. It was for this reason that he read
it n<L<L. The first sign of the group is, however, often written
as the initial sign of the well-known name APeP. The value
A is also proved by the variants of the royal name Nepherites
(NAIF Aa RoT), and the Greek transcription ^ (that is, a vowel
letter) is constantly found in the Gnostic papyrus of Leyden.^^
(5) eNTI, the relative pronoun of both genders and numbers.
— ChampoUion, Gram. p. 306.
(6) HeR, in or at On the different significations of this pre-
position, see Champ. Gram. p. 298.
(7) Pe-ScheT. Tlie Grove. The first sign of this group,. Pe
is the masculine article. — Champ. Gram. p. 173. The Coptic
word eye wood is used in the Pentateuch in the sense of forest.
Our hieroglyphic group, however, must not be identified with it,
for ScheT is not only applied to trees, but to stone, natron, fire,
water, and milk.^^ Its real meaning, therefore, probably is
" enclosure", and it is only in a derived sense, like the Greek
rljuEvoc, that it comes to signify grove. The Red Sea was called
ScheT eN PUNT. One of the names of Osiris was FeNT
ScheT Aa, " Dweller in the great enclosure".
(8) ASchT. The last sign in this group is the generic deter-
mination of trees. The group ASchT is generally translated
" Persea tree", though botanists are not unanimous as to the
exact species of tree intended. It often appears on the monu-
ments as the tree upon whose leaves and fruits Thoth, or Safch
the goddess of letters, inscribes the names of the kings of Egypt.^'
(9) eR-Ma-F. This group is compounded of the preposition eR
in, Ma a place, and the pronominal sufiix of the third person.
The sense of eR-Ma has been perfectly well explained by
ChampoUion (Gram. p. 499), who rightly compares it with the
Coptic eriJUUL, which is often used adverbially in the sense of ibi,
ubi. The first part, however, of the paragraph of the Gram-
maire Egyptienne to which I refer gives, I believe, an erroneous
view of the extremely important particle MA (34), the right use
of which deserves to be illustrated at some length, for although
I have more than once* seen the particle rightly translated, I am
^] Cf. Dr. Hincks. Trans., K.I.A., vol. xxi. p. 230. Mariette, Bulletin Archeo-
logique, 1. p. 57, note 34, de Rouge Essai sur une stele Egyptienne, p. 9.
" Compare the following passages of the Ritual— 17, 17. 45. 66. 122, 6. 142,
4. 144, 30.
^' See e. g. Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians (second series), vol. iii. pi. 54, and
for further information, Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. I. p. 258, 259.
* [This was already in print when I received (Dec. 14) the very remarkable
paper by Dr. Hincks, " On the grounds for supposing that the name of the tribe
136 Hieroglyphic Studies.
not aware tliat any one has called attention to its use, and even so
recent and accurate a work as Mr. Birch's Introduction to the
study of Hierogl3rphics (p. 257, 258) assigns no other meaning
to it than " in place of".
Champollion's words are as follows: "On emploie dans un
sens h, peu pres analogue [to eNSU after] le mot MA, JUL<L, lUUL^
nom commun signifiant le lieu^ la place, et dans les memes oc-
casions oil les textes Coptes ofFrent le mot eilJUL^ a la place^\
(The real hieroglyphic expression corresponchng to " in the place
of", is eM MA). He then quotes several examples in which Ma
may, indeed, be translated "in the place of", but where it is
equally susceptible of another and more correct interpretation.
One of these examples is taken from the Rosetta Inscription —
CheP-NeF SuTeN-I MA TeF-eF which Champollion translates
// regut les attributions royales a la place de son pere.
The Greek translation is Tra/oeXajScv Tr]v fiamXeiav irapa tov
narpog in which 3IA is rendered by wapa followed by the geni-
tive, a preposition whose equivalents in Coptic must be sought,
not in JUUL but in eKoXg^^ and cognate words, corresponding
to the English from, or rather the Anglo-Saxon fram which
had a more extensive use than its modern derivative. On
comparing together the numerous passages in wliich MA occurs,
it will be found after such verbs as to take away, seize, deliver,
protect, repulse, receive, come, etc , and very frequently in such
a context as to leave no doubt as to its signification.
Thus at the 64th line of 17th chapter of the Ritual, we find
the following invocation —
A NeB HaT Aa ATI NuTeR-U NeHeM-K HeSARi
Oh Lord of the great dwelling, sovereign of the gods, deliver thou Osij-is
(N) MA NeTeR PFI eNTI HRa-F eM TeSeM
(the departed) from that god who his face (is that) of a leopard,'^*
ANHU-F eU ReT ANCh-eF eM CheRI-U
his eyebrows (those) of a human being, he lives upon the damned.
Several invocations of the kind occur in the chapter. Thus the
Sun-God, who " emits breezes of fire from his mouth, and who
illuminates the earth with his light", is entreated (line 51) —
NeHeM-K HeSARi (N) MA NeTeR PFI ScheTA ARU-F
Deliver thou Osiris the departed from that god who conceals his transformations
UN ANHU-F eM eR-MeNMeN MAChl.
his eye-broivs are as the beam (V)^^ of the balance.
of Issachar occurs in Egyptian inscriptions.'' In this essay (p. o), I find the
true meaning of our group, as a preposition, briefly but distinctly recognized,
as I am certain it would be by all other high authorities, if they had an occasion
of speaking about it]
2* The word here translated "leopard" is the name of the animal depicted in
Bunsen's Egypt, vol. i. p. 514, (Ideographics, 252) from a papyrus in the British
Museum. The animal belongs to the genus felis, but its species is not easily
Hieroglypliic Studies. 137
So again at line 73 —
NeHeM-K (N) MA NeTeR PFI T'a BA-U NeSBU HaTI-U
Deliver thou the departed from that god who seizes upon souls, devours hearts
ANCh eM HAU-U
(and) lives upon evil-doers.^^
In the 72nd chapter the departed invokes the Lords of Truth —
NeHeM- TeN- UA MA AT
Deliver ye me from the crocodile.
So again, 136, 6 —
NeHeM-K (N) MA ARi-T eR-F BeHeN"
Deliver thou the departed from there being done to him hurt.
And again in the 148th chapter, line 16 —
A TeF NuTeR-U A MuT NuTeR-U eM NeTeR KeR NeHeM-
Oh Father of the Gods, Oh Mother of the Gods, in Hades, deliver
TeN (N) MA CheT NeB TU
t/e the departed from all things evil.
Elsewhere we meet such examples as these.
eR-TA-NeF-NA AN NeHeM-F MA A^*
He has given to me, he takes not from me.
NoK NeHeM TeF-eF MA-SeN^^
/ (it is) who deliver his father from them.
NoK UR Si UR NeSeRT Si NeSeRT eR-TA-
/ (am) a prince the son of a prince, aflame the son of aflame, there is given
NeF APe-F eM-CheT SchAT-eF AN NeHeM-TU APe eN HeSARi
to him his head after it is cut off: not taken away (is) the head of Osiris
MA-F AN NeHeM-TU AP-A MA-A.^^
from him, not taken away is my head from me.
identified. The " leopards (?) of Horns" are mentioned in the 13th chapter, 1. 2.
Horapollo (1, 17) speaks of the lions of Horus.
2^ The sense beam is a mere conjecture. I have not sufficiently studied the
word, which is commonly written eR-MeN (sometimes with a final -NU), the
latter part of it signifying the forearm. eR is the verb facere. The group
occurs agahi 17, 88. 64, 12. 71, 11. 105, 5. 124, 4. 5. If, as some of these passages
would seem to indicate, the word refers to animals connected in some way
with the balance^ the pictures of the judgment scene point out the cynoce-
phali. See Todt. pi. L. (Cf. the top part and centre of the picture.)
^^ The Coptic ^OOT is one of the common translations of irovripbg or KaKhq,
but the determinative of the group HAU seems to point out the notion
" corrupt", as in the phrase (154, 5) —
SaH-U-F TeM HUAU-SeN
ossa ejus non corrumpuntur.
At (33. 1) we have—
AxM-NeK PeN-(NU) BoTU eN RA AU USchA-NeK SaH-CJ
Thou hast eaten the rat detested of Ra aud hast devoured the bones
eN SchAU HUAUU
of a cat putrefied.
'^ Compare Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions, 57, 41. where this invocation
occurs with the feminine suffixes. NeHeM-K-eS MA ARi eR-S, "Deliver
thou to her from there being done Aer mischief", etc.
" ro(/Ml,3. 49,4.
'^ lb. 32, 2.
'° !>>. 43, 1.
138 Hieroglyphic Studies.
It is needless to quote other examples in which the verb
NeHeM (35) occurs.
Passages in tne Ritual, parallel to those abeadj quoted, will
be found under the following references, 17, 56. 75. 29, tit. 125,
13. 36. 42. 146, 9. 148, 20. 163, tit.
The verb Te, (36) one of the synonyms of NeHeM, takes MA
after it as in the title of the 28th chapter —
Re eN TeM eRTA Te-TU HaT eN SA MA-F eM NeTeR-KeR
Chapter of not being taken the heart of a person from him in Hades.
One of the very next chapters, the 30th, is entitled —
Re eN TeM eRTA CheSeF(37)-TU HaT eN SA MA-F eM
Chapter of not being repulsed the heart of a person from him in
NeTeR-KeR.
Hades.
Let us now now look at passages in which other verbs occur
The verb NeT' (38) is interpreted in the Rosetta Inscription by
the verbs atoZ^iv and afivvuv. We find Horus saying, in the
128th ch. (1. 5) of the Ritual—
HuI-A-NeK ChaFT-U-K NeT'-NA-TU Jkf4-SeN.
/ have smitten for thee thine enemies^ I have been avenged upon them.
In the same way Horus speaks of himself, on a sepulchre now
in the British Museum, as —
NeT'-eK MA ChaFT-U-K^i
Avenging thee upon thine enemies.
The verb ChU, (39) to cover ^ to protect^ is found in the phrase
ChU Si RA RaMeSSU HiK AN MA CheT
Guarding the Son of the Sun, Ramses III., ruler of An, from all
NeB TUS2
things evil.
The deceased says in the Hall of Truths —
AU-A UBe ChU-K-UA MA T'eNTI-U^'
lam pure, guard me from revilers.
The ordinary preposition in the phrase " justified against the
enemy", is eR. In the 124th chapter, however, of the Ritual we
have (fine 10) —
AU MACheRU (N) MA NeTeR NeB NeTeR-T NeB eNTI
Is justified the departed against every god (and) every goddess who is
AMeN eM NeTER-KeR'*
hidden in Hades.
31 Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions, pi. 75, 1. 4. Cf. Todt. 17, 90. 69, 1. At
78, 9. I am doubtful whether the first MA should be translated from or by,
€ manu, or simply manu.
32 ChampoUion, Monumens, pi. 214.
33 Todt. 125, 63.
34 On the other hand eR is found where we might expect MA, as in the com-
mon phrase, "pure from iniquity", UBe eR TU. The fact is, from is one of
the significations of eR, as in the following passages —
Hleroglypldc Studies. 139
^In the 15tli chapter (1. 9) we have the words —
r AMeN(40>TU-F MA-SeN
' Abdkus ilh ab illis.
The 94th chapter is entitled —
Ke eN TeBHU MeSeT PeS MA TuT
Chapter oj praying Jor a slab (and) inkstand from Thoth.
(M. Deverla translates this : adresser une priere a Thout . . .
avec une palette et un godet a la main.)
In every one of the passages quoted the Coptic language
would employ the preposition efi.oX^<L or one of the words
nearly related to it, and never JUL*^. In fact the three examples
cited by Champollion ought to be translated " from his father".
The particle MA has, however, like its Coptic equivalents,
a more extensive sense than our present word from?^ ^CJofi.-
niKen ^.TajCJOUI e^oX^ITOTq, is the Coptic version of
'* All things were made hy Him", in the Gospel. In like manner,
for " Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth", we have
eEioX^^n JULnei m"eqT^.npo. This should lead us at least
to examine whether MA were not used as before the ablative
of the instrument. I find it so used in the following sentence
from the tomb of Ameni at Benihassan —
BeK-U NeBeN SuTeN Pa HeR-ChePeR MA-S?^
The labours all of the royal dwelling were accomplished by me,
AN T'eNA-UA eR MAA-NA NeB-U TIAU (1, 18.)
/ am not prevented from seeing the Lords oj the starry dwelling.
AN RAAU eN Ba-F eR Cha-F (89, 7.)
non tolletur anima ejus a corpore ejus.
CheM-A eM HaTI-A CheM-A eM A(?)-UI-A CheM-A eM RaT-(TI)-A
J prevail with my heart, I prevail with my hands, I prevail with my feet,
eR-A MeR Ka-A AN ChNAM-TU BA-A eR Cha-A HeR
/ do the will of myself, not taken away (is) my soul from my body at
TIAU-U eN AMeNTI (26, 5.)
the gates of Hell.
AN ChNAM eN NuTeR-U HoTeP-U-TeN eR-A CheR-SeN eR-A HeR
Non rapiunt dii panes vestros a me' procidunt coram me in
HRa-U-SEN (29, 2.)
Jaciebus eorum.
The " Chapter of eradicating the dGceitfulness (or baseness) of heart" ends
thus (U, 4)-
TeR SchePTI NeB eNTI eM HeT ei2-S
Delentur turpia omnia guce (erant) in corde ab illo.
^* That our word /rom once had a wider signification than at present will be
seen from the following passages of Bang Alfred's Orosius —
Fifty men were slain in one night, ealle trnam hiona aji^nufti rtjtitim, all bu
then- own sons. i o i » ./
Ic eac -p^Aiii him o^e|\-wtinr>en eom, I also am overcome by them.
Carthage that was built, fi^am ehfann, etc., by that woman Elisa.
'° Lepsius, Denkmaler, II., Bl. 121. Compare Mr. Birch's translation,
140 Hieroglyphic Studies.
Dr. Brugsch, in Kis recent History of Egypt, translates the last
words *' par mon bras", wliich is, of course, perfectly unobjection-
able if it be not meant (as it miglit easily be understood) as a
literal translation of the group MA-A, or as implying a different
group eM (A ?)A,^^ in wliich the arm is taken in its ideographic
value. There are passages in which this latter interpretation is
impossible. In the Hall of the Truths, for instance, the Floor
refuses to let the departed pass over it —
HeR-eNTI AN ReCh-eK ReN eN RaT-(Ti)-K CheNT eK
Because thou tellest not the name of thy two feet <- ^71 h h th
HeR-A MA-Se-N^^
upon me with them,
wouldst tread upon me.
In the 49th chapter (1. 2) it is said —
AN eRTA-NA CheR MA-K ChaFT-U-A PU
iVon[-ne?] datur mihi prqfligari a me ininricos meos.
In another reading of this passage (11, 3) the verb used is
TeR, to destroy.
I conclude these notes on the signification of MA with the
following passage from the 42nd chapter (1. 13) of the Ritual —
eRTA- NeF ANCh-eF 3/^-SeN KI-T'aT MA-Te^.
Datur ei vita ejus ab illis [aliter a vobis.^
(10) eM in. — Champ. Gram. p. 450.
(11) AN. The hieroglyphic name of Heliopolis, which is
found on the most ancient obelisk that is known, that of Seser-
tesen I., was first read with certainty by Dr. Brugsch,^^ although
it had been rightly guessed at before the proofs were forth-
coming. The Biblical name of the city is 1^, and this name is
proved to have been the same as the Egyptian by the comparison
of such variants as (41) and (42) of the name ReAN"(TI). Two
cities bore the same name : Hermonthis was called AN ReS, " An
of the South" ; HehopoHs, AN MeHiT, " An of the North". The
Greek name of the latter town (like the sacred names Pa-Ra,
Aa-Ra, " house of the Sun, city of the Sun"),^" is derived from
the worship of the Sun-god Ra, under the names of HoR-eM
AChU " Horus of both horizons", as the rising Sun, and TUM,
or ATUM, as the setting sun.*^ The " Spirits of An", by whom
Sesertesen is said upon the obelisk to be beloved, are, according
" All the work of the king's house was done by me". (On a remarkable Inscrip-
tion of the 12th Dynasty, p. 19).
^'^ As in the passage (Rosellini, Mon. Stor., p. xlir), " His bow is in his
hand'\ eM A (?)-F. The plm-al of this group is by far more common than the
singular
38 Todt 125, 59.
39 Geographische Inchr. I. p. 170.
*o lb. p. 254, sqq.
*' See a representation of Ra-Hor-m-achu-Tum .Belmore Papyrus, pL III.
Hieroglyphic Studies. 141
to the Ritual/^ Ra, Scliu, and Tefnet, tlie two latter divinities
being, as we know from other texts, the son and daughter of Ra.
(12) RA. The sundisk ideographic of the god Ra (Coptic
pH) followed by the hatchet as the determinative of Gods.
(13) PU. The use of this particle, as a copula, was illustrated
in the last number of the Atlantis as far as was possible by the
mere quotation of examples. It is, however, found attached to
verbs as well as substantives, and to substantives which are
neither subjects nor predicates of prepositions. In the latter case,
at least, its use is analogous to that of the pleonastic ooi of the
Syriac Grammar."*^ And on comparing variants of the same
text, PU will be found in one, whilst it is left out of another.
(14) T'eSeF. The particle T'eS has the signification ipse, and
takes the suffixes of the personal pronouns,** thus —
UTeN-NA NeCheB-eK eM AK-UI-A TeS-A«
Describo titulum tuum digitis meis ipsa ego.
Se-UT'A-K-UA SchA Se-UT'A-K-TU TeS-eK«
,-■ , r J {as thou hast been made } .j i_c
Make me whole < i i > thyself.
The third person masculine T'eSeF will be found in innumer-
able places ; the feminine T'eSeS, and the plural forms occur less
frequently.
The second part of our text will be better understood with an
English than with a Latin translation —
(15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22)
T'aT-TU SchAU eR-F eM T'aT SAu SchA SU
(It is) said Cat to him ) /. /i- n • o tj v • o i
i. e., he is called Cat (Schau)\ /^^^ ^^''^ ^«^^"^ '^^^ ^^^^ *^' ''^- ^'^''^'
Sau is the name of a god which Ra pronounced like the
Egyptian word meaning Cat, and in consequence of this he was
himself called by the name of that animal. Our text does not
explain the circumstances which led the Sun-god to indulge in
a vicious pronunciation similar to that which at the present day
characterises the Jewish mode of speaking EngHsh and German,
and the reverse of that which proved so fatal to the men of
Ephraim on a memorable occasion.*' We have here, however,
The 15th chapter of the Eitual (the most poetical in the book), which consists
of a hymn to the Sun, shows that the names of that deity were not rigidly con-
fined to the occasions mentioned in the text. — See, e. g. line S6.
" Chap. 115, 7.
*^ See examples of this in the Lexicon (p. 126) of the Syriac N. Test., edited
by Leusden and Schaaf, and the obstrvations of Michaelis, Gramm. byr. §. 133.
** See Birch, Introduction, p. 254.
*^ Ve Rouge, stele Egyptienne, p. 51.
*^ Todt. 71, 1.
*' Judges, xii, 6. It is a very cutious fact that the Hebrew S almost invari-
ably corresponds to the Arabic Sch, and the Hebrew Sch to an Arabic S in the
words common to both languages.
142 Hieroglyijhic Studies.
a specimen of those etymological myths for which the Egyptians
seem to have had a predilection. Myths of this kind, which are
not the spontaneous growth of popular imagination, but the
result of rationaHzing reflection, seem to have been much more
common among the ancient Romans than among the Greeks.
Although the sounds S and Sch are naturally allied in the
Egyptian as in other languages, the affinity cannot be said to
have been very great. Nor does the preference for one of these
sounds rather than the other characterize any of the different
ages or dialects of the language.
(15) The word T'aT wliich occurs twice in this sentence is
the most frequent of all hieroglyphic groups, and corresponds to
the Coptic forms X^-^., Xe, XCJO.— Champ. Diet. p. 174. The
final syllable TU, which, in some inscriptions, that of Kosetta
for instance, is written UT, is the participial termination, and
corresponds to the Coptic OTT. — Champ. Gr. p. 429.
I have elsewhere spoken of the Egyptian habit of writing
vowel letters after consonants before which they were probably
pronounced. According, however, to the system of transcription
adopted in these articles, each sign is transcribed exactly in the
order in which it comes in the hieroglyphic text, without pre-
judicing the question which may arise as to the real order in
which these signs are read.
(17) ell-F to him. The phrase, " Simon who is called Peter",
is translated into Coptic neciJULCOIt ^HeT" OTJULOTi" epo-q
Xe nCTpOC that is, " Simon who it is called to him Peter".
In the same way we find OtK^KI GTJULOT'f epo-C Xe
n<L^<LpeO, "a city it is called to it Nazareth". This form of
expression exactly corresponds to that used in aU the Semitic
languages.
Woe to them who say to evil good, and to good evil !*^
that is, " who call evil good, and good evil !" In like manner
the Arabic ^jjI i^ Jli> "it is said to him Abraham",*'
i.e., "he is called Abraham". This idiom, however, is not
peculiar to the Eastern languages, though I am not aware of its
being classical in any other. There are parts of France and
Switzerland in which the peasants say, " On lui dit Jean", for
'* he is called John".
A text quoted on account of the paronomasia contained in it,
in the last number of this JournaP" from Brugsch's Geography,
ought, I think, to be read as follows —
*» Isai. V, 20. ■*» Koran, xxi, 61.
^" Atlantis, IV., p. 366, n. 70. Brugsch Geograph. Inschr. I. p .165.
Hieroglyphic Studies. 143
KA-TU eR ReN HeSPTeN TeB eM TeB HoR TeBH.
It is called to the name of this nome Teh Jrom wounding Horus Typhon.
i. e., The name of this nome is called Teh because here Horus wounded Typhon.
In otiier passages the particle eN^^ is used instead of eR, as —
Pe MU eNTI AlJ-T'aT-NeF TA-KeT-eN-TA-TeBT-U.»2
The water which i. ^/ '^ «?'^ ^« *^ I the 'Tool-of-the- Fishes".
( 1. e., IS called > "^
The " Spirits of tlie West", according to tlie lOStli chapter of
the Ritual, are Turn, Sebek the Lord of Becha^ and
HaT-HoR eM MaSclieR T'aT eR HeSe.
Hathor (goddess) of evening {iJ'''a name by thkh Isis is called.
(20) SAu. The sitting figure at the end of the group
is the determinative placed after the name of a god. The
first sign of the name^^ is found with the value S in the
names and titles of Roman emperors. It is also found^* in the
variants (43) of the name To-SeN, Esne. These authori-
ties are, indeed, of late periods, and ought not to have
much weight if earlier evidence were available in support of
another reading. But I am not aware that convincing proof has
ever been brought forward in favour of an other value. Words
in which the sign occurs may be explained by Coptic equiva-
lents, beginning with S as well as with any other letter. Nothing
short of a well-established variant of a respectable date can decide
the question.
The god SAu is mentioned several times in the Ritual, and
his name is written with and without the final U. It is said in
the 17th Chapter (1. 24):—
HU SAU .... UN-NU eM-CheT TeF-U Turn
Hu (and) Sau they are with their father Turn.
Sau is one of the three gods or " spirits" of HermopoHs,^^ and
^' Compare ChampoUion's Diet. p. 173.
52 Brugsch, ubi supra, p. 166 (697).
5^ Calligraphic varieties of this sign are found. Compare Todt. 80, 1 , with
the corresponding passage of the Cadet papyrus (Description de I'Egypte —
Antiq. ii., pi. 74, 1. 20). Salvolini, after Chanipollion, assigns to it the value S.
Mr. Birch distinguishes between the different periods, and gives it the value Ka
in the earlier periods, S in the later. I do not know what arguments there are
in favour of the value Ka, though I think ^I can guess at one or two of them.
Brugsch keeps to the value S or Sa. The sign itself seems to represent a tissue
—(See Rosellini Mon. Civili, pi. xlii., and the corresponding text vol. 2, p. 27.
Compare Todt. 110, a. 4), which points tothe Coptic COJ^e (or CCO^I) and to
^e. These words are so extremely like each other, that I am almost tempted
to look upon the former as a compound word implying the root CCO, to
weave (?).
5* Brugsch's Geogr. Inschr. i., p. 168. Cf. 145, 81. 83.
" TodMU, 4; 116,3.
144 Hieroglyphic Studiea.
he is found on monuments both alone and in company with liis
brother Hu.^^
(21) SchA like, is the Coptic aj<L, but the sense of it lias
been best preserved in the doubled cy^.cy, Cljecy, cyojctj.
similis, par, wqualis. It has been copiously illustrated in Cham-
pollion's Grammar, p. 477.
(22) SU is a personal pronoim he, him, it, they, th^mi, and in our
text refers to the substantive SchAU. Champollion describes
this pronoun as a " complement direct du verbe".^^ Dr. Brugsch
expresses the strongest approbation of this view, and at first sight
Mr. Birch's " Introduction" seems to agree in looking upon SU as
a mere accusative form.^* A translation, however, which occurs
in the last mentioned work,^^ leads me to think that Mr. Birch
only insists upon the accusative use of SU, without denying that
it may be taken as a nominative. In the translation to which
I refer, we find it said of the tower built by Ramses II. —
*' Su er shua Taha er a Merter It holds Taha for Egypt
" Su kha skhar Annu rasu It is like a picture of South Anu.
The most recent works of Dr. Brugsch may also be cited in
favour of Su as a nominative as well as accusative form. The
celebrated inscription of the Vatican speaks of Darius^" —
AS HeN-F eM AKAM AS SU eM UaR Aa eN SeT
Whilst his holiness was in Aram, when he became the Great King of the whole
NeB
world.
In the Anastasi Papjrrus (No. 1) we read of —
TeSchAeMPelUMaT'aReN MeRU ReN-eF AT'A-TU-F MU eM
A fortress in the sea, Ti/re of the waters (is) its name, it receives water in
BARI-U SeSeR SU eM RaM-U eR SehA-U
barksy rich it (is) in fishes for food.
The same papyrus contains other examples of Su as a nomina-
tive —
I . . . RAI eM-SchA SU SchA Ach.
I . . . rai likewise, it (is) like what ? i.e. nothing can be
compared to it.
SU RoT eM UN-TU^i
It {is) blooming with (?) trees.
^•^ See Sharpe Egyptian Inscr.,2 series, pi. 19. Lepsius, Denkmiiler, iv., pi.
17. I know of no reason for suspecting an identitj'- between the god Sau and
the god Ka {Todt. 105, 1), or between either of these and the god whose
hieroglyph occupies the third place on the Egyptian cubit. No reason has yet
been given for confounding the latter sign with the alphabetic sign K Cf.
Lepsius, Ueber den le Gbtterkreis, p. 1 85.
S7 Gramm., p. 287.
*^ Introduction, p. 253.
69 lb., p. 267.
60 Geogr. Inschr. i., p. 68 (354).
61 lb. ii., p. 43 (128)., p 54 (1G3).
Hieroglyphic Studies. 145
Many other examples might be quoted, but I have thought
it better to confine myself to the passages already translated by
authorities which might be supposed .to tell against the view I am
maintaining. It may readily be granted, on the other hand, that
the number of passages in which SU appears as an accusative, is
apparently far greater than that of such as have already been
cited. Two examples will suffice : —
HoR PU (N) MeS SU HeSe IteNeN SU NeBT-HA ScliA
(The departed) is Horns, hringeih him forth Isis, nurseth him Nepthys, as
ARi-SeN eN HoR^^
they did to Horus.
SeCheR-eF SU CheNuR-eF SU SchA TeHA-U eR-HaT PeNiF-U^'
He overthrows them, he disperses them like reeds before the winds.
The third part of our text merely repeats the statement, that
in consequence of the Sun-god's mis-pronunciation of his son's
name, he received the nickname of " Cat".
(23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30)
eM NeN ARi-NeF ChePeR ReN-eF PU eN SchAU
From so _ he did ? j^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^
t.e.jrom his doing so ^ \ y ^
(24) NeN. The reading of this group is proved by the
variants of such names as ToNeNT^*, Totunen, Tanen, Senen,
etc. The two lines (N, N) are, therefore, the phonetic equivalents
of the initial signs, which are also interchanged with the sign
(46). The word NeN has been explained by M. de Rouge.
*' Its first meaning is likeness; as an adverb, it corresponds to
sic; as a demonstrative pronoun, it is found either with a plural
substantive, as nen neteru ' these gods' ; or by itself, signifying
this, that, these things, viz., those which have just been men-
tioned, as in the usual phrase of the papyri Ha-sa-nen ' after
that'". The compound form " SchA-NeN" like, has also been
explained by the same illustrious scholar.
Several passages have already been quoted, in which NeN
occurs. A few more will still farther illustrate the use of the
word : —
NoK HeSARi NeB ReSTi NeN(-NU) eNTI eM APe CheT^a
/ am Osiris the lord ofResti, the same who (is) at the top of the stah-case.
^ Todt. 134, 6.
«3 Rosellini, M.R., pi. 108.
" See Variants (44) and (45). Lepsius, Te Gotterkreis, p. 198.
®^ Stele Egyptienne, p. 150. Compare "Notice de quelques textes hierogyphi-
ques recerament publics par M Greene", p. 28, 31.
^^ Todt. 22, 2. Some light will be thrown upon the expression " at the head
of the staircase", by such pictures as Descript. de I'Egypte, Antiquites, plates 58
and 64, or by such as Champ. Mon. III. 272. In the last of these pictures
Osiris is depicted as forming the prop of the balance, which is placed at the top
of a staircase which men are ascending.
III. 10
146 Hieroglyphic Studies.
So again, " the gods behind Osiris are, Amset, Hapi, Tiaumu-
tef, Kebsenuf: —
NeN PU eNTI eM-Sa Pe ChePeSch eN Pe MeHiT^^
the same wlio are behind the " Thigh'"* of the northern sk?/, i.e., the con-
stellation of the Great Bear.
Among the privileges enjoyed by the departed, we are told in
a rubric, of which a part has already been quoted : —
UN-NeF eM NeTeR eR HeH SeRuT HA-U-F eM NeTeR-KeR
He becomes a God for ever, made to flourish are his limbs in Hades
AN TeT ARi-T NeN T'eSeF eN HeSARi eR eRTA UBeN MUU
through Thoth who did [this or thusi himself to Osiris^ to make a ray of light
HeR Cha-F68
with his body.
The 99th chapter speaks of com and barley seven cubits high
in the fields of Aanur, reaped by the ministers of Horus ; of the
beatified soul it is said : —
USchA CheR-F eM NeN KeTTI BoTI
Edit autem ille ex illo tritico et hordeo.
(For the reading KeTTI compare lines 4 and 8 of chap. 149).
SchA-NeN is found in passages like the following : —
Ta-K HA-A eR HeH SchA-NeN-(NU) ARi-NeK HeNA TeF-eK
Grant (that) I may go on for ever as thou hast done with thy father
TUM c. 154, 3.^
Tum.
SchA-NeN ARi-TEN eN ChU SeCheF AP-U AM-U ScheSe NeB-SeN
Quemadmodum fecistis spiritibus septem illis qui sunt in ministerio Domini eorum
c. 17, 33.
(25) ARi-NeF 7ie did. We have here the verb ARi,
to do, the final F is the sign of the third person singular
masculine, the N which precedes it indicates the perfect
tense. As all traces of the original pronunciation are irre-
coverably lost, it is impossible to say whether the ancient
67 Todt. 17, 35.
6^ Todt. 101, 8. I am not quite sure about the true sense (in this passage) of
the group eRTA. If it signifies make, as it does in many places, the preposition
HeR means " out of, with", as in the phrase " made with wood", See the
description of the taMsmans (155, 2 ; 156, 3), MeNCh HeR CheT eN NeH,
" made out of the trunk of a sycamore".
^9 Compare hue 4 —
SchA-NeN ARi-NeK eR NeTeR NeB NeTeR-T NeB
As thou hast done to every god (and) every goddess.
I am not yet able to follow Mr. Birch in reading MA everywhere, instead of
Ta, for the Arm supporting a pyramidal object. Yet many passages of the
Todtenbuch, on being compared together, would seem to confirm Mr. Birch's
transcription. Compare, e.g., the first and second lines of Chap. 57. But com-
pare also 54, 1, and 56, 1. Synonyms may often be mistaken for v^ariants. And
that synonyms frequently occur in passages otherwise identical, is generally
admitted. Compare 136, 24 (or 164, 15) with 165, 15. The texts signify "he
drinks water out of the depths of the river", but in one text the preposition
HeR is used for " out of", in the other the preposition eM.
Hieroglyphic Studies. 147
Egyptians made a distinction between the sound of eRTA-NeF
dedit ille and eRTA-NeF datur illi, N, in the latter instance,
no longer being the sign of the perfect, but the particle N
signifying of, to, etc. The termination NA (or NeK, NeF,
etc., according to the person) is often found in a sentence
with both significations. Nothing but the evident sense of the
passage can enable us to distinguish between them. Thus —
CheSeF-NA APeP Se-HeM-NA EaT-U-F eRTA-NA RA
/ repulsed Apophis, I made to retrograde his feet, lent to me Ra
A(?)-UI-F AN CheSeF-UA KeTI-U-F^o
his arms, did not repulse me his divine satellites J ^
70 Todt., 100, 3. Very nearly the same text is found (Ch. 129, 3), only with
the third person, instead of the first. It is interesting to compare the parallel
forms. CheSeF-UA, "repulsed me'\ corresponds to CheSeF SU, "repulsed
him". So M AA-SeN-UA (Ch. 78, 26), *' they see me", answers to the frequent
phrase, MAA-SeN-SU "they see him". It follows, that UA indicates the
reflected form when it comes after the verb in the first person.
7^ " Satellites" is here given as a mere provisional translation of the proper
name KeTI-U, which requires some explanation. It is not without considerable
hesitation that I venture for once to abandon a reading supported by the autho-
rity of M. de Rouge, even though it be in order to follow one which has in its
favour the names and arguments of men like Lepsius, Birch, and Brugsch. The
names of the Decan Seket and the city Rakoti (^Alexandria), in which the sign
(47) occurs, appear to counterbalance the fact, that it is often found preceded by
an initial A. (Cf. de Rouge Notice de quelques textes hieroglyphiques, p. 28).
This initial A may be accounted for exactly in the same way as that suggested
by M. de Rouge for the A often found before the group Chu; "je sais quece
radical ainsi que beaucoup d'autres, se presente souvent dans les rituels antiques,
avec une ou deux voyelles initiales. C'est ce qui a engage, sans doute, M. Birch
a lire ach ; mais la valeur de, etc., etant certaine, il ne faut voir dans ces exam-
ples quune voyelle initiale ajoutee au radical simple; ce que les- langues
egyptiennes et coptes admettent tres facilement". (Essai sur une stele
^gyptienne, p. 95.) It is interesting to note that the Coptic root KT", build, is
precisely one of those which are found with an initial vowel. See Tattam Lexic.
jEgyptiac, p. 78. The Coptic and Egyptian resemble the Semitic languages in
their frequent use of the prosthetic vowel. Compare Gesenius, Lehrgebaude d.
hebr. Sprache, p. 139.
The gods called KeTI-U, are repeatedly mentioned in the Ritual (3, 2. 15, 26.
130, 15. 22. 140, 9. 144, 20. 149, 31). They were attached to the Sun, and fol-
lowed him in his course. The deceased addresses the Sun (101, \) : —
HeFT-eK HeR MAHU eN UA-K AU-ChNuM-NA eM KeTI-U-K
Thou restest on the oar of thy hark, I am joined to thy satellites.
In the previous chapter (100, 7) we had been told about the deceased, that —
eRTA-ChN uM-eF eM PuT NuTeR-U AM-U CheT RA Se-HaT'
He is joined to the cycle of gods who are with the Sun, he enlightens
Ta-(Ti) ChaFT-SeN
the earth together with them.
In one of his "^gyptische Studien", Brugsch quotes a passage from the 130th
chapter (1. 21), to the efiect, that the Decans "in grosser Freude seien indem sie
ergreifen die Spitze der Sonnen (Barke)". The quotation stops short of two im-
portant words, and the end of the sentence is literally —
CheP-SeN HaT eN RA MA KeTI-U-F
Captant caput solis ex satelliiibus ejus.
10 B
148 Hieroglyphic Studies.
One of tlie most interesting parts of M. de Rouge s invaluable
These gods are frequently alluded to under the name of the "limbs of the
Sun", as when it is said of the departed (ubi supra, 1. 28), that " he sees the Sun-
god in his members". In the 17th chapter, the interrogation "I am the great
god, self created", is thus explained (line 4) —
RA PU KeMa HA-U-F ChePeR NeX NeTeR-U AM-U-CheT RA
The Sun it is who made his limbs, ivho created those gods which are with the Sun.
Here the parallelism of the sentence (Cf. de Rouge, Tombeau d'Ahmes, p, 110.
Birch, Memoire sur une patere egyptienne, p. 9) requires that the same relation
should exist between the accusatives of KeMa and ChePeR, as between those
verbs themselves. Now, these verbs being synonymous, it follows that " those
gods which are with the Sun", are " his limbs", and they are so thoroughly iden-
tified with him that, from having made them, he is said to have created, or given
birth to himself. Another text bearing, I think, on the subject, is found,
Todt. 17, 74,
ChePeRA HeR-HeTUA-F PTU-U TeT-eF
The Creator in his bark, the gods (are) his body.
(I omit the initial interjection, and the various readings T'eSeF and T'eTa at the
end. ChePeRA, the Creator, is, as we are told at line 79, Hormachu, one of
the forms of Ra.)
In a passage already quoted from the Ritual, it is, I think, said, that the body
of the departed was made into a ray of light. Are we to interpret by the solar
rays these KeTI-U, or " gods which are with Ra'', and repulse bis enemies, " his
divine limbs'', one with himself, to which the beatified spirit is united after
death, in company with which he illuminates the earth, and from which the
constellations catch the first glimpses of the Sun-God ?
It is, perhaps, unsafe to look in the Coptic for the etymological affinities of the
word KeTI. Still it is worth noting, that i<(JO"| signifies " encircling", and is
found in numberless passages of the Coptic scriptures with this sense. " Going
round", and " carrying or bringing round", are derived meanings, of which the
hieroglyphic Se-KeT offers numerous examples in the Ritual, beginning at chap.
1, line 18 (where the deceased sees Orion go round), and continuing all through
the book, the most frequent instances referring to the bark of the Sun.
In the well-known text, in which it is said of the god Chnum, who is repre-
sented as fashioning man with a potter's implements,
KeT-NeF SU eM A(?)-UI-F
He made him with his hands,
KeT, perhaps, corresponds to the Coptic KCT", cedijicare. It is no argument
against this, that to form and to build, are diflPerent notions ; for if so, it would
equally tell against the evident relationship between the English build, the
German bilden, and the corresponding Dutch, Flemish, and other Teutonic
words which are used with reference to painting and sculpture. A still stronger
argument is the fact, that the group KeT is really found replaced by the ideo-
graph (PI. II. 76) of a man building a wall. See, for instance, the legend at
Philae (ChampoUion's Mon. I. pi. 89, or Rosellini M, del Culto, pi. 77), where
the god Chnum " builds the divine limbs of Osiris".
Another important word, in which the sign (47) occurs, is KeT-TI, wheat,
Todt., 149, 8. This word has certainly as much resemblance to the Hebrew
ntih and the Syriac JA.A^ as the Sanskrit godhu-ma from which von Bohlen
supposed the Semitic names of wheat to be derived, and from wliich he would
certainly have derived the Egyptian name had he known it. Other Semitic
names of wheat, however, are the Arabic Xla^rs* and the Chaldaic "p'jsn, and
the question has naturally been raised, whether the letter N in these words is
radical, and has only disappeared from the Hebrew and Syriac in consequence of
Hieroglyphic Studies. 149
Memoir on the inscription of Ahmes, is tliat in which he has called
attention to this point/^ He has shown how in many instances
N is replaced by the particle AN {hy^ through) which leaves no
doubt as to the function it discharges. Perhaps we are as yet
very much in the dark as to the real nature of the Egyptian
tenses, and the darkness may be greatly increased by a wish to
identify them with the tenses of European grammars. eM
NeN ARi-NeF cannot literally be translated into good English
or Latin, if ARi-NeF be taken as a mere perfect tense, but it is
possible that ARi is taken substantively as in the cases cited by
M. de Rouge, and that the whole should be translated " from this
doing by him".
(26) ChePeR. The Beetle is found in several names of Roman
emperors, and in all of them with the value T or D. Mr. Birch
has, however, shown that, in the earlier times, its value was
ChePeR.^^ This is proved by variants of all ages, from the time
of the Pyramids downwards, and is now generally admitted.
One solitary piece of evidence which has been asserted^* in favour
of another value during the Pharaonic ages has never been
verified. It is to Mr. Birch also, and M. de Rouge after him,
that we are indebted for the full illustration of the different
its being assimilated in those languages by the stronger sound of the T. Such
is the opinion of Gesenius, who, in his Thesaurus, is disposed, like Celsius, to
refer all these names to an Arabic root signifying red. On the other hand, it
would seem hazardous to lose sight of a very decided and well-known tendency
of the Chaldaic, Arabic, and ^thiopic languages to interpolate the letter N in
places from which it was originally absent. Thus the Greek word fitjxavv is
transcribed manguane in JEthiopic, and the Arabic J^j^ a pig, is the equi-
valent of the Hebrew -iith and the Syriac j^pw* The Sadducees are called
in the Arabic Versions X^5>U*J\ (Cf. Gesenius, Lehrgebiiude der hebr. Sprache,
p. 863; Dillmann, Gramm. d. iithiopischen Sprache, pp. 88, 110.) If we look
beyond the Semitic languages, we find the Persian name ^JsicJ gandhunij
a form intermediate between the corresponding Arabic and Sanskrit words.
It is found in the Turkish, Hindustani, and Malay languages, and, with
slight modifications, in the Kurd, Afghan, and other dialects. The English
wheat, the German weizen, the Scandinavian hveiti, the Massogothic hwaitCj
the Lithuanian kweti, have generally been held cognate to the Hebrew
ntah. If this relationship were once securely established, it would appear
that the many different names of wheat are reducible to a single type. As I am
unable at present to state the earliest date of the word KeT-TI, I am not pre-
pared to assert that the type had its origin in Egypt ; though, as that country
was aheady the granary of the world in the patriarchal times, and as the use of
wheat was known there in the very earliest ages of its history, and for centuries
prior to the remains of any other language, it is hardly supposable that the
Egyptians should have dropped an indigenous for the foreign name of so impor-
tant an article of food.
^^ Tombeau d' Ahmes, p. 170.
^^ Revue Archeologique, vol. 5. De Eouge Tombeau d' Ahmes, p. 51, sqq.
^* By M. Poitevin (Rev. Arch., vol. XI., p. 596), who says, that the Beelet
stands in ancient rituals for the T in Atum.
10*
150 Hieroglyphic Studies.
meanings of tlie word, the Coptic form of wliicli is Ctjeil,
ttjcwni = yiveaOai. We have already seen the affinity between
the articulations Ch and OJ. Another remarkable phenomenon
in the history of the language is the loss in many words of the
final R, a change similar to that from the Latin frater, mulier,
to the Italian /raie, moglie. ChampoUion had already noticed this
phenomenon, and more recent inquiries have only confirmed his
views. The Coptic has preserved traces^^ of this change, princi-
pally in the double forms (with or without the final R) often found
of the same word. ^2>op, fi.epB.ep, JUiepe, Ta5JULep,
^OKep, ^T"(JOp are found concurrently with the more recent
forms ^.^o, Kefie, JULe, TCJOJULe, £,ko, ^xo.^^ j^^^ ^^ ^^^
other hand, hieroglyphic and demotic texts are not wanting to
prove that this change began with reference to some words at an
earlier period of the language than the Coptic. Mr. Birch has
quoted a variant ChePI as an equivalent to the group made up
of the Beetle and the two Reeds. At Edfu, the common expres-
sion ChePeR T'eSeF, self created, is written CheP T'eSeF.^'^
It is impossible in an article like this to quote examples
in sufficient number to illustrate the various uses of the word
ChePeR. We must be content with noting, that its primitive
sense is " becoming", and that it is employed both transitively
and intransitively.
As an example of the intransitive use of the word we have —
ChePeR CheEI-U eM NuTeRU eM CheRI-U-F^s
Fiunt boves deorum boves ejus
The transformations which the departed is represented through-
out the Ritual as constantly undergoing after death, are called
ChePeR-U, a word which M. de Rousfe has shown^^ to have been
'* It is interesting to observe, that Peyron, in his Coptic Grammar, is some-
times obUged to have recourse to a paragogic p, to explain the identity between
forms which really represent the more ancient and the more modern ages of the
language. His classification of some of the forms in R as irregular plurals, is
untenable in fact ; and, at all events, the fact would still remain to be explained.
The simplest explanation of the form ^TUOp is surely found in the hieroglyphic
HTR, written over a horse, on a large number of monuments.
^^ Compare, also, such forms as the Sahidic^P^pO, whi/, with the Memphitic
A.^O^ or the Sahidic ^pA., a face, with the Bashmuric ^^, and
Memphitic ^O.
^'^ See Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr., i. Taf, xxxiv (700) c.
78 Todt, 112, 6.
'9 Tombeau d'Ahmes, p. 110. Another synonym of ChePeR-U is AR-U
(Todt., 17, 51), Avhich, perhaps, points to ARifacere, as a synonym of ChePeR.
That ARi is = MeS, was explained in a former article.
Hieroglyphic Studies. 151
used synonymously with MeS-TU, hirth^ coming into being. To
the examples quoted by M. de Rouge, it may be added, that the
phrase MeS T'eSeF, " giving birth to himself", is used synony-
mously with ChePeR T'eSeF.*^" Hence, the sense produce^
create^ as in the following passage —
ChePeR-NeF SeM-U RuT-NeF UeT'-UeT' NeB^i
He made to grow the grass, he made to flourish all things green.
If we add that, in the phrase " he made his enemies not to he'\
eM TeM ChePeR is found as the synonym of eM TeM UN,
it will appear that^er^, facere, and esse^ are three different signifi-
cations of the word ChePeR. From these three principal signi-
fications all the others are easily derived.
(27) ReN-eF, his name. This word is the Coptic p^.n with
the pronominal sufl&x of the third person masculine. The group
is followed by the pleonastic PU, and the final group (eN
SchAU, of Cat) requires no farther explanation. A phrase
precisely similar to that just explained, is found in the 112th
chapter (1. 7) ChePeR ReN-eF eN HoR . . . His name became
that of Horus.
It is not likely that this paper will be read by any one who
believes that the secret of the hieroglyphic writing is lost for
ever, and that the latest as well as the earliest attempts at de-
cipherment and interpretation have been made in vaim The
paper is more likely to fall into the hands of readers who, with-
out any decided disbelief in the success of ChampolHon and
his successors, are yet in a state of absolute uncertamty as to
the degree of confidence which may be placed in such transla-
tions as have been given in these pages from hieroglyphic texts.
To such persons I can only offer the test which they would
probably themselves adopt, were they obliged to form an opinion
as to the fidelity of a translation from a language unknown to
them ; and that is the testimony of independent witnesses. A
person ignorant of Greek, and therefore unable to judge whether
his son correctly reads and translates a given passage, ought
surely to feel satisfied when the passage is read and translated
m precisely the same manner by the first six or seven persons
consulted by him, if it be impossible to suspect any collusion be-
tween them, although he is as incapable of judging their powers
even of reading the language as in the case of his own son. The
certainty arrived at in this instance is not derived from the facts
that Greek is a language supposed to be known by many educated
«" See a text in Lepsius Denkm. III. 229.
«' Todt., 149, 59.
152 Hieroglyphic Studies.
men, and that tKe persons consulted have the reputation of being
educated men, but from the no less certain fact that any person,
professing to read and translate a passage of a language really
unknown to him must necessarily fall into a multitude of errors,
and from the extreme improbability, not to say impossibiHty, that
six or seven different persons should independently err into
exactly the same combination of errors.
In applying this test to hieroglyphics, it must be observed that
the greater parts of the texts quoted in this paper have, up to the
present moment, remained untranslated. Yet I have no hesitation
in saying that, were these texts put before any of the scholars
whose names are held in estimation among Egyptologists, such as
Dr. Hincks in this country, Mr. Birch in England, M. de Rouge
and M. Chabas in France, Dr. Lepsius and Dr. Brugsch in Ger-
many, not to mention others,
1. These gentlemen would, one and all, divide the texts into
exactly the same groups as mine.
2. They would (saving certain restrictions, presently to be
noticed), read and translate these groups as I have done.
3. If the translation of any of the passages quoted from the
Book of the Dead were put before the scholars I have named,
they would easily point out the chapter and line from which it.
was taken.
4. I do not profess to be able to translate every passage in the
Book of the Dead ; but if any passsage in it be translated by any
one of the above-mentioned scholars, I mil undertake to point
out the original text, determine the beginning and the end of it,
divide it accurately into groups, and assign to each the same
meaning as that given to it by its translator.
And I humbly submit that all this would be impossible if the
science of Egyptology were an illusion.
One of the first steps in the process of reading, namely, the
division into groups, is by ays be easily eiFected
by the process just given.
It might, indeed, at first sight, seem as if Cardan's expression
would give an impossible value for a', when the quantity under
the radical sign is impossible, but it does not do so in reality,
for though each of the parts of the binomial, taken separately,
is an impossible quantity, yet their sum is not ; for, on expand-
ing each of them by the binomial theorem, and then taking
their sum, it is easily seen that the impossible quantities will
disappear; just as in Trigonometry, where an expression for
cos is
cose = 4(^-'«+e-^~'*)
which is not an impossible quantity, although the two parts of
it are each of them separately impossible, for on expanding
e etc., and taking the sum, the impossible parts cancel
each other. And this suggests another method, in addition to
that given above, of reducing the expression given by Carden,
reducing it, that is, to decimals, which is what is generally re-
quired in practice. I am still supposing the case where all the
roots are possible.
Solution of Cubic Equations. 163
Let us then for shortness put = ^5 ^^^ V 'T~^7~^*
then the expression will become
=-'('+3'+-*(>-I)'
+
"" \ Sa 9^ 81a^ 243a^ )
o , ^ Iv^ 10 V
^"^ ^^~9^~243^
The odd powers of - therefore, that is the impossible quan-
tities, disappear; and if v is a proper fraction, we shall have
a converging series, of which a very few terms will give us the
value of the root in decimals to great exactness.
Suppose, for example, that we have the equation
a?3-4^-3=0
here we shall have r-^iS, 5'=:4
r^ 13 , . , . . .
J — = — i-o7v> also m the series just given,
__r_3 'o^J^ir' q^\__ 13
^"2~2' a^~T\^~2V'^ 243
hence the series becomes
^^ 5Jr + 9 243 243I243J +
which, when resumed, will give for the value of x^ 2.3027.
This being found, the equation may be depressed to
a:^+2.3027^ + 1.3027=0
11 B
164
Rev. W. G. Penny on the
whose roots are —1 and —1.3027, hence the required roots
are 2.3027, —1.3027, and —1. Here, then, is an example of
a cubic equation having all its roots possible, and found by
v^ .
Garden's rule. In the above case, however the quantity — is
a small fraction. It might, however, have happened that it was
a large quantity, in which case the above expansion would not
have been available, inasmuch as the series formed would not
have been convergent. When this is the case, therefore, we
shall have to vary the method of expansion, as follows : —
x='^a-\'V-{'^a—v
a\^
=,*(i+«)*-.*(i-g
iA , la la\ 5 a'
2>v W ' 81^;' 24:2>v
10 a\ 22 a* \
la la? 5 a' 10 a^
22 g^
729tr*
)
, i/la , 5 a» 22 a" \
_„/'la , 5 a' 22 a' . \
„ i(l V"^' , 5 ^faf , 22 7"^'* , \
let - =k, then the above will be reduced to
^ia*(l+^^+£^+ etc.)
all of which quantities are manifestly possible ; and when — is a
proper fraction, as it is here supposed, the series will be always
a convergent one. As an example, take the equation
^'~5a;+l=0
Solution of Cubic Equations. 165
The root of it, which is found by the summations of the above
series, is .2016, and the others may be found from the reduced
quadratic, they are
2.1284 and -2.3300.
In both the above examples, it will be seen that — or - is a
small fraction, and so two terms at most of the series will amply
suffice. It might, however, have happened that -^ was nearly
equal to unity. The method, however, would still be appli-
cable, only we should have to take a greater number of terms.
But in practice this may be avoided ; and it will always suffice
even in the most unfavourable cases to take two terms at most,
and then apply a correction, as will presently be explained.
For even if we were to omit all the terms in the latter series
after the unit, the error in the value of the root would never
exceed a fifth or sixth of its entire value, and the error would
be much further lessened if we were to take one or two of the
terms which follow the unit. Suppose, then, that by doing so,
we find a value c for a root of the equation, but which, on
substituting it for .^•, does not satisfy the equation so nearly as we
could wish. Suppose also, that c + 7i is the true value of the
root; then we should have
{c-\'hy-q{c-Jrli)-r=0
As h is supposed to be small, we may neglect its square; and
this will give us for its value
, &—qc-~T ,
~^"3?" ^^^ ^^^^^'
and so we might proceed to a still nearer reduction. Take as
an example
, a» 243 , . , .
nere — = — ^^, which is very near umty,
but by taking two terms of the second series, and applying the
correction, one of the roots will be found to be .6566. The
others are both possible, and may be found in the usual way.
166 Mr. Hennessy on the
It appears, then, that the formula of Cardan is equally capable
of reduction whether the roots be all possible or not, and with
precisely the same degree of exactness; the only difference
being that when they are all possible, the operation is somewhat
more troublesome than when two of them are impossible.
Moreover, the formula is capable of being reduced algebrai-
cally^ and without the use of tables of cosines.
Nor is there much difference between the two methods as
regards simplicity; perhaps the algebraical method will have
the advantage when it is only required to calculate the root to
four or five places of figures ; but beyond this we might, per-
haps, have to refer to the tables oftener than we should in re-
ducing the trigonometrical formula, but not otherwise ; and at
all events, it will have the advantage of treating in a purely al-
gebraical manner, and without the introduction of other branches
of mathematics, what is a purely algebraical problem.
Art. VI. — On the Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. By
Henry Hennessy, F.R.S.
§■1.
IT has been long recognized that, although currents of wind in
a direction nearly parallel to the horizon are those which
usually prevail, the atmosphere is frequently subjected to verti-
cal and oblique motions among its particles.
Under favourable conditions these motions may acquire such
a development as to force themselves upon the attention of
observers, and thus become objects for meteorological inquiry.
The interesting researches of M. Fournet upon the vertical cur-
rents of mountains, appear to have arisen from the opportunities
enjoyed by that physicist of studying such phenomena among the
Alps. Among the deep ravines and valleys, as well as along the
elevated slopes and escarpments of the Alps, a regular periodicity
in the action of vertical winds has been frequently observed during
the course of twenty-four hours, which has led to the conclusion
that their development depends upon changes of temperature
resulting from the presence and absence of the sun. As it is now
well established that the distribution and changes of temperature in
these islands are dependent upon other influential causes besides
the direct action of the sun,^ we cannot, in general, expect to find
* See Atlantis, vol. I. p. 396, also a letter from the author to Major- General
Sabine, on the influence of the Gulf-stream on the winters of the British Islands.
Proceedings of the Koyal Society, vol. IX. p. 324.
Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. 167
in our climate, a similar diurnal periodicity so distinctly defined
as that observed in the centre and south of Europe. Here, as
well as on the continent, mountains are favourable to the produc-
tion of inequalities of temperature, moisture, and density among
the aerial strata, which thus become liable to a multitude of dis-
turbances, and especially to the action of vertical currents. It
seems to follow that in mountainous countries vertical currents
have well marked relations with the changes of the weather.
If, as usually happens, lakes exist among the mountains, the
mysterious occurrence called the " bore" is also thus explained.
The circumstance that the suddenly-formed wave thus de-
signated always proceeds from a side of the lake bordered
by steep mountains, immediately suggests such an explanation.
Although a similar idea has occurred to other inquirers, I may
be permitted to refer to an instance where a demonstration was
presented by me^ of the efficiency of vertical currents in pro-
ducing the " bore" on the surface of one of our Irish lakes. The
fact that such a sudden wave usually preceded a change of the
weather in the district surrounding the lake, led me to think
that the study of the effective cause of the bore itself might be-
come of importance in meteorology. But to do this, we should
possess means for observing the actual direction, and, if possible,
the force of the atmospheric currents.
§•2.
Hitherto, all instruments which had been employed for ob-
serving the wind were devised exclusively v^dth reference to its
horizontal direction and intensity, from the simple wind-vane to
the most finished anemometer.^ I have attempted to modify the
ordinary vane so as to make it an indicator of the actual direc-
tion of the current, both in altitude and azimuth. Instead of the
fixed surface against which the wind impinges in ordinary vanes,
I had a disk suspended at the tail of the vane, capable of rotating
on an axis perpendicular to the line of direction of the instru-
ment. A pair of flanges were attached to this disk in such a
manner that, when the whole was at rest and the air free from
motion, the flanges would be horizontal. With perfectly hori-
zontal currents, the flanges would still continue in the same posi-
tion, although the head of the vane would as usual move about
^ In a letter to the Eev. T. K. Kobinson, D.D., of Armagh. See Proceedings of
the Royal Irish Academy, vol. vi. p, 279.
' Some time after the anemoscope had been devised, my attention was called
by my friend, the Rev. Dr. Robinson, to a passage among the notes to Dr. Dar-
win's poem of tlie " Botanic Garden", wherein the writer indicates such an instru-
ment ; but he seems never to have realized this idea, and the apparatus which
he proposed was essentially different from mine.
168 Mr. Hennessy on the
in azimuth. But if a current happened to be inclined to the
horizon, the flanges would be pressed upwards or downwards,
showing the direction and amount of the incHnation, precisely as
the position of the head or tail of the ordinary vane shows the
direction and inclination of a current with reference to the meri-
dian. When we know the inclination of a given current to the
horizon, we can readily estimate its absolute force from its hori-
zontal force, as can be easily shown.
§•3.
Let the origin of co-ordinates be at the centre of the axis of the
vertical disk \ y d x will represent an element of the area of the
flange. Let represent the angle of inclination of the flange,
H the pressure exercised by the wind in a horizontal direction
upon a square unit of surface, and V the vertical pressure exer-
cised upon a similar unit. The entire moment of the horizontal
forces acting on the entire flange will be
H 1 smBxi/dx,
and the moment of the vertical forces will be
V 1 cosdxydx.
Both of these moments tend to cause a rotation of the disk,
but in contrary directions : hence when the disk is in equihbrium
they must be equal, and therefore, because is independent of x
and y, we shall have
Hsin0=Vcos0, V=Htang0 (1)
and if we write F for the absolute force of the wind, we shall
have
F = Hsec0 (2).
Hence it follows, that if we can observe the absolute direction of
the wind, we can estimate its vertical force as well as its absolute
intensity without any special instrument, using the results ob-
tained by the existing anemometers which give the horizontal
intensity.
§.4.
A wind-vane or anemoscope, capable of showing the absolute
direction of an atmospherical current, having been constructed
in accordance with my directions, I proceeded to make some
observations during the months of June, July, and August,
1857. It was placed on the top of a strong mast, about twenty-
six feet in height. The mast was fixed near the end of a large
garden, far from buildings. As my first series of observations
were intended to be merely provisional, I did not make them at
Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. 169
specific fixed hours, but at such times as presented disturbances
in the atmosphere, or which afforded sufficient leisure for con-
tinued attention. A journal was kept, from which I make the
following extracts. Before doing so, it is proper to remark that
by the term " vertical currents" in these extracts, as well as in
the title of this paper, 1 do not mean currents actually perpen-
dicular to the horizon, but rather oblique currents with an upward
or downward tendency.
June 28, 7h. a.m. — ^Air perfectly still, flanges horizontal, head
of vane towards the east. 7h. SOm. a.m. — Breeze with slight
vertical currents until after 8. The currents were upward from
the ground. The flanges were often perfectly horizontal, and
their mean angle of inclination was small. About 10 a.m., a few
fine scattered clouds (cirro-cumuli) were observed to move in a
direction contrary to the wind as observed near the earth.
From 3h. p.m. to 3h. 45m. — Wind extremely gentle from
E.S.E., upward current, angle of inclination estimated at about
5°. The upward currents often continued for several minutes
together. The angle was sometimes almost imperceptible. The
sky became gradually overcast towards evening.
June 30, 10 a.m. — Sky completely overcast, strong wind from
E.S.E., rapid oscillations of the disk during the greater part of
the day. About 6 p.m., the wind blew in violent gusts from the
east, and the disk showed alternations of upward and downward
currents with occasional short intervals. These observations
led me to conclude that rapid currents of air cannot generally
advance with the same steadiness as currents of water, the greater
mobihty and elasticity of the former fluid probably allow its
movements to easily acquire a species of undulation. Thus we
may account for the motions of the branches of trees, which
generally swing backwards and forwards, showing rapid vari-
ations in the intensity of the wind. During breezes composed
of a succession of strong sudden gusts, it was difficult to esti-
mate the inclination of the flanges, as each fresh impulse drove
the flange beyond the angle due to the pressure, and before it had
been sufficiently long oscillating about its true position to allow a
correct observation, a fresh gust would perhaps drive it in a
different direction.
July 1, 9 A.M. — ^Wind N.E., strong breeze with vertical cur-
rents. The position of the flanges was sometimes steady for
many minutes, with a very small inclination, upward currents
appeared to predominate in duration.
July 2, before 9 a.m. — Air still and warm, head of vane di-
rected to S.E. After 9 a gentle breeze from E. and E.S.E.,
with an upward tendency. The disk remained steady at a small
170 Mr. Hennessy on the
angle, sometimes for two minutes together. Towards noon the
disk was more steadily upward, while the breeze still continued.
The clouds were observed to move from W.N.W. At 6h. 30m.
P.M., a gentle breeze from W.S.W., sky covered with light clouds,
steady upward tendency of the current, very little waving of
trees. The flanges sometimes retained the same inclination for
a quarter of an hour. 8h. 30m. p.m., wind more brisk from the
west, but the disk still steady ; sky beginning to become overcast.
July 3, 8 A.M. — Wind S.W. and S. ; air filled with heavy
clouds, floating at comparatively short distances from the earth.
Strong breeze with alternate up and down currents, the down-
ward currents lasting but for very short periods. 9h. 15m., a.m.,
wind S.S.E. with light rain. Just before the rain the down-
ward currents became more prominent, the clouds moved from
S.W., lOh. 30 A.M., wind S.S.W. with alternate upward and
downward currents.
July 5. — Fine morning, clear sky, with a few scattered cu-
muli ; gentle breeze from S.W., alternating currents, upward pre-
dominant. 2 P.M. — Cloudy sky, with the air almost still ; sHght
vertical currents. Rain from four to seven o'clock. 9 p.m. —
Wind N.N.W., clearing the sky; temperature rapidly falhng,
with downward currents. Towards midnight, the sky was
almost perfectly clear, and the wind more westerly.
July 6, 9 A.M. — Very strong breeze from N.W., with vertical
currents and rain. The alternations were sometimes rapid, and
the apparent angle of inclination very great. The disk rarely
continued steady in an inclined position, although it sometimes
remained for long intervals in a perfectly horizontal position,
with a strong wind. Rain appeared to produce no remarkable
effect on the flanges, for it seemed to be shaken or blown off.
About 3 P.M., the wind was strong and steady from N.N.W., the
movements of the flange were as follows during the course of a
few minutes: — Downward, I2 min. ; upward, 2 min. ; level, i
min. ; oscillating, f min. ; down, i min. ; up, i min. , oscillating,
k min. ; level, i min. ; up, i min. ; oscillating, i min. ; level, i
min. ; up, 1 min. ; down, i min. The air was gradually filHng
with broken masses of cumulo-stratus clouds. As they appeared
to approach the earth, downward oscillations of the flange be-
came more manifest. Approaching four o'clock the wind blew
irregularly, with violent and sudden gusts of short duration. At
^i P.M., a strong breeze, with currents ha^dng a downward ten-
dency ; towards seven the sky became a little more clear, and the
currents appeared to be alternately upward and downward, with
short intervals of 10 or 12 seconds. At 7h. 15m. p.m., the wind
was from N.W., with alternate currents, the upward predorai-
Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. 171
nating, while the sky was becoming perceptibly more clear. The
upward currents were decidedly longer in duration than at 6 p.m.
Di P.M. — Wind still from N.W. ; upward currents, with alter-
nating currents at intervals of about one minute.
July 11. — Wind W. A beautiful day, with a few light clouds
scattered on the sky. During the afternoon, up to 5 p.m., a
strong breeze, with very decided upward currents. At short
intervals, the disk oscillated, showing a downward tendency.
July 14. — Before 9 a.m., the wind was E.S.E. ; a moderate
breeze, with downward tendency. Light clouds were observed
to move in a direction opposed to the wind at the earth's sm-face.
lOh. 30m. A.M., wind S.E. ; an increase of clouds (cumuli) ; both
vane and disk were oscillating ; downward tendency of currents
was marked. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, a fog was seen out
at sea, which, as it approached the shore, ascended in clouds over
Howth.
August 6, 10 A.M. — Wind N.E. ; alternate currents downward
predominating. The sky was covered with light clouds, and the
temperature comparatively low,
August 20. — An extremely fine and warm day, with a clear
sky. The air was nearly still, and the disk continued to indicate
faint and steady upward currents, for the flange continued at an
upward inclination of a few degrees for long intervals, sometimes
exceeding one hour. The movements of smoke that could be
observed at the same time showed a similar tendency.
August 21, 7 A.M. — Wind E.S.E., with no vertical currents;
after 8, the disk commenced to move, and the flange was some-
times inclined upwards at a very small angle. It frequently re-
mained perfectly level, although a very perceptible breeze was
blowing. After 10 a.m., the upward tendency became more
manifest, and it generally remained for long intervals inclined
at an angle of from about 5° to 8°.
August 24, 5 P.M Before and during a heavy shower the
disk exhibited the presence of downward currents.
September 3, 8 a.m. — Wind blowing in sudden gusts from
N.E., the disk showed vertical currents, chiefly with a downward
tendency ; rain followed at about half-past nine.
§. 5.
The few results which were thus recorded seem to show that
the study of the non-horizontal motions of our atmosphere is
desirable, not only among mountainous districts, but that it may
form a portion of our general inquiries under all local circum-
stances whatever. It appears that the wind rarely blows parallel
to the surface of the earth, and that the air, while in rapid motion.
172 Mr. Hennessy on the
is always undergoing a process of undulation, whereby the direc-
tion of the axis of a current at any point above the earth is
changed alternately, so as to be more or less incUned upwards or
downwards just as the direction of the wind in azimuth is fre-
quently observed to slightly oscillate about its mean position.
We may conclude, therefore, from §. 3, that the absolute force
of the wind is always a little greater than its horizontal intensity,
as exhibited by the anemometers.
While such an undulatory motion of the atmospherical currents
may be generally due to the elasticity of the air and the mechani-
cal influence of terrestrial irregularities, many of my observations
were such as to clearly show the existence of true upward and
downward currents. In no other way can we account for the
steady inclination of the flanges of the anemoscope at times
when scarcely any horizontal wind was perceptible. When true
upward currents were prevalent, the temperature of the air
was usually increasing and the weather fine. Downward cur-
rents seemed to be usually preceded or accompanied by a sudden
decrease of temperature, and these currents themselves usually
preceded rain or unfavourable weather. Regular alternations of
both classes of currents were usual about noon or the forenoon
of clear days. The explanation of the last circumstance is ex-
tremely simple. It depends upon the manner in which the at-
mosphere acquires the greatest part of its heat during the day.
A small portion of the solar heat is immediately absorbed in
passing through the air, but the greater part reaches the ground,
whence it is imparted to the atmosphere immediately touching
it. The air so heated expands, and consequently, from its re-
duced density, it tends to penetrate upwards in currents through
the overlying strata, which at the same time fall downwards to
fill up the vacancies. A species of convection, analogous to that
seen in a boiling or heated mass of liquid, is thus developed in
the air. The trembling of the air, often noticed over steam-
boilers, close to the chimneys of steam-vessels, and even on walls
and gravelled walks heated by the mid-day sun, is undoubtedly
due to the same minute and rapid currents which take part in
this process of aerial convection.
§.6.
That there are more important vertical currents engaged in
promoting exchanges between the upper and lower strata of the
atmosphere, within a short distance from the earth, appears ma-
nifest from experiments made by me in May, 1858.* Thermo-
* Report of the British Association for 1858. Transactions of Sections, p. 36.
Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. 173
meters were suspended at different heights, and under different
circumstances of exposure to the supposed currents. On days
when the sky was clear, and when, consequently, the direct in-
fluence of the sun in heating the ground was most decided, ob-
servations were made every minute, and sometimes every half
minute, dm-ing short intervals. More or less rapid oscillations of
the mercury were observed. In thermometers freely exposed to
the air, the mercury sometimes rose or fell three degrees Fahren-
heit in three minutes. The longest fluctuations did not occupy
more than six minutes. The fluctuations diminislied, the more
the thermometers were protected from the influence of the cur-
rents of air.
A further confirmation of these results is found in the Report
of the Director of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford, relative
to the meteorological observations during the year 1857.
The thermometrical curves exhibited a remarkable serration
during the day-time of the most brilliant months of the year.
This serration entirely ceased during the winter, and on gloomy
days at every season : its intensity seemed to increase with sun-
shine. It is readily explained by the action of small atmosphe-
rical currents alternately ascending and descending, the former
producing a sudden and brief elevation of the mercury, and the
latter a sudden and short depression. The curves referred to
were obtained at the Radchfie Observatory, by a very beautiful
apphcation of the waxed-paper photographic process ; and the
results here noticed would probably never have been exhibited
by the ordinary observations at stated hours. I cannot refrain
from remarking that the success which has attended this portion
of the application of photographical registration to meteorology,
has much increased my confidence in its trustworthiness, while
it has inspired a feeling of deep regret at the loss which science
has sustained by the death of Mr. Johnson, to whose able ma-
nagement and indefatigable labours these and many other results
are mainly due.
§•7.
To such small currents we may attribute whirlwinds of more
or less magnitude, from those which we often observe on dusty
roads, to the grand and frequently dangerous phenomena of the
desert. Mr. Belt, who writes in the Philosophical Magazine for
January, 1859, presents some very instructive observations on
this subject. The ascending currents over dry ground in the
interior of Australia, were frequently observed by him to carry
leaves and dust to the upper regions of the atmosphere. Often,
when travelling over parched plains, this observer saw the air
174 Mr. Hennessy on the
quivering over tKe hot ground as if close to the wall of a furnace ;
suddenly a miniature storm arises, and after a few minutes
violence, it as suddenly ceases, while the quivering of the air is
no longer seen and the atmosphere does not feel oppressive. All
these phenomena are obviously the results of more or less en-
ergetic interchanges between masses of air possessing different
temperatures. The process of convection in this case is not of a
gentle and gradual nature, but takes place with fitful violence.
The phenomena here referred to, seem to present on a small
scale the principal features of cyclonic storms and hurricanes.
These are always preceded by inequalities of temperature in the
regions where they occur, and it is extremely probable that such
inequalities take place in a vertical as well as in a horizontal
direction. The distribution of watery vapour must at the same
time be affected, and this would again react upon the equi-
librium of the atmosphere, so as to favour the existence of
ascending and descending currents. The rapid oscillations of
the barometric column which usually precede hurricanes, are
thus doubtlessly connected, not only with variations in the
statical pressure, but also with the irregular influence of vertical
and oblique currents, which at such times disturb the equilibrium
of the atmospherical column over the barometer.
§.8.
The duration and energy of many of the vertical currents
which came under my observation, were such as to show that
currents of a greater order than those which take place by the
influence of the heated ground immediately beneath, are some-
times developed among the overlying atmospheric masses. Such
currents being of much greater magnitude than those which would
account for the rapid fluctuations of the thermometer already
noticed, we may refer to them not only great interchanges of
temperature in different strata of the atmosphere, but also a very
efficient part in the production of ordinary winds. If an exten-
sive portion of the earth's surface becomes more heated than other
surrounding portions, the air will ascend and overflow above the
cooler air resting upon the unheated surfaces. The cold air at
bottom will at the same time tend to rush inwards, so as to fill
up the vacuum which the ascending currents would have left
above the surface of the heated ground. As the air that over-
flows above does not rush into a vacuum, but penetrates and
mingles with masses of cooler air possessing nearly the same
density, its progress is considerably retarded, wliile at the same
time some of the vapour which it may contain is condensed so
as to assume a vesicular cloudy form. A corresponding retar-
Vertical Currents of the Atmosphere. 175
dation in the motions of the air rushing in from the colder to the
warmer surface below is also produced from the resistance of the
air lying over the latter. The production of sea and land breezes
furnishes a complete and instructive illustration of these remarks.
Many of the upward currents, which I observed with the anemo-
scope during the summer mornings, were undoubtedly the pre-
cursors of the sea breeze. Such currents continue to accompany
the production of the land and sea winds in a manner that I have
been able sometimes to observe by the smoke of steam vessels
near the coast. Thus, on a warm day in June, 1857, I observed
the simultaneous existence of the sea breeze at Kingstown and a
slight motion of a few light clouds from the interior towards the
coast. A steam-ship far out at sea was proceeding towards Eng-
land, and the smoke was drawn by the gentle breeze into a
streamer extending for miles behind the boat. The streamer of
smoke appeared straight and perfectly horizontal over the surface
of the water, until it arrived at a point about a quarter of a mile
from the Hill of Howth, w^hen it rose upwards with a gracefully-
curved outline, and it appeared to be gradually diffused in the
air situated vertically over the hill.
The influence of vertical and oblique currents in the atmos-
phere is not only thus manifest in the comparatively limited and
local phenomena of sea and land breezes, mountain winds and
whirlwinds, but it has been also appealed to in order to explain
the circulation of the great winds of the Earth. Thus Maury, in
his attempt to exhibit the general laws of the great winds, pre-
sents a diagram in which ascending and descending currents are
distinctly indicated over different regions of the globe. Their
agency is also appealed to by other inquirers, and their principal
seats of action seem to be indicated as the calm regions, that is
to say, the regions where horizontal winds blow with least in-
tensity. Observations with the aid of the anemoscope in the
regions of equatorial and tropical calms, would thus probably
serve to test the accuracy of the general views here alluded to.
The systematic study of the non-horizontal movements of the
atmosphere has scarcely been commenced, but what little know-
ledge we possess of such movements shows that they are so
closely connected with some of the most important phenomena
of the weather, that their further investigation is certain to be
attended with interesting and valuable results.
176
Art. VII — Note on some Prismatic Forms of Calcite from
Luganure, county of Wicklow. By William K. Sullivan.
IN tlie first edition of his Traite de Mineralogie (Paris, 1801)
Haiiy distinguished three kinds of prismatic carbonate of
lime: 1. Chaux carbonatee prismee, abeady described by Rome
de Lisle, and wliich Haiiy supposes to be derived, in his mole-
cular theory of decrements by the law d}. According to this, it
would be the prism produced by modifpng planes placed upon
the lateral edges of the primitive rhombohedron. The second
he calls chaux carbonatee imitative^ and considers to be the prism
obtained according to the law e^ by planes on the lateral angles
of the primitive. The tliird, which had also been before de-
scribed by De Lisle, he named cliaux carbonatee prismatique,
and considered to be also derived according to the law e^. He
mentions four varieties of this form: a, alternating — having
three alternate wide faces and three intermediate narrow ones ;
b, compressed — with two opposite faces larger than the other
four; c, widened — with four faces wider than the remaining
two ; and cZ, lamelliform — in very short (i.e. in tabular) prisms.
Of the crystals of this form he says : " In certain crystals the
extremities are of a dull white, while the intermediate part is
transparent. In others the opaque part is situated towards the
axis and surrounded by a transparent envelope. The bases of
a few exhibited concentric hexagons, and one could even ob-
serve the extremity of a small internal prism, rising above the
whole prism".
The forms he calls imitative and prismatic being obtained by
the law e^, contain the same prism ; the prismatic faces which
have been observed among the varieties of calcite belong,
therefore, to one or other of those prisms. Dufrenoy, who
uses the nomenclature of Haiiy, as modified by Levy and him-
self, represents the faces of the first prism, or that on the edges
of the rhombohedron, by the symbol d^ {u of Haiiy), and the
prismatic, or that on the angles, by e^ (c of Haiiy). Of course
each of these prisms is completed by the modification a^ on
the summit angle, which produces the horizontal plane forming
the base.
According to the German crystallographic methods, prisms are
looked upon as mere limiting forms. Mohs and Haidinger con-
sider d' to be the limiting form of the pyramids, the former
expressing it by the symbol P-}-oo and the latter by oo P, which
is the one adopted by Zippe in his summary of all the observed
On some Prismatic Forms of Calcite. 177
forms of carbonate of lime.* The second prism e"^ is considered
to be the limiting form of the rhombohedron, and is represented
by Mohs by the symbol R-f oo, and by Haidinger by ooR.
Zippe also adopts the latter.
According to Haliy d' or ooP is rare, and Dufrenoy states that
only some examples are known. According to Zippe, it is frequent
enough in combination as a secondary form, but seldomer as the
dominant form. Surmounted by the primitive rhombohedron
(R or P), it is noticed by Dufrenoy as " a very rare example of
the prism on the edges, associated with the primitive rhombo-
hedron"^ from Cumberland. He also mentions another in
which h' or 2 R' (the equicuve of Haiiy) replaces P or R, but does
not give the locality. Further on he notices a third exajmple from
the Samson mine in the Hartz, in which the horizontal edges of
the prism are truncated by rudimentary planes of the pyramid.
The prism ocR or g^, although comparatively rare as a simple
form, is very frequent in combination ; according to Dufrenoy
indeed, it is the only one found complete. A little before, he
says that it is of a milky whiteness, and almost always opaque.
The base sometimes bears striae parallel to the edges, which are
indications of cleavage. Examples of ocR surmounted by JR' or
h' from the Hartz, Cumberland, and the department of 1' Isere,
have been described.
The position of the rhombohedrons surmounting the prisms is
different in each kind. In goP the surmounting rhombohedral
faces lie so that the edges of combination with th^ prismatic
faces coincide with the lateral edges of the rhombohedron. In
CO R the edges of combination in three alternate faces are
horizontal; the truneatures at either end of the prism alter-
nating, so that each face of truncature is parallel to one at the
opposite end. The directions of the cleavages correspond per-
fectly with the dispositions of the modifying planes, so that every
alternate basal edge of the prism gcR or e^ may be removed
by cleavage with the greatest facility, by which a prism sur-
mounted by the faces of the rhombohedron may be obtained.
Although the prismatic faces ooR are sometimes dull, they
always, at least in all the crystals which I recollect to have seen,
possess more lustre than the faces ocP associated with them.
The former are, indeed, usually very bright in transparent
crystals. This circumstance is noticed by Dufrenoy, who, in
speaking of the example of ocP or (d}) with pyramidal trun-
Uebersicht der Krystallgestallten des rhomboedrischen Kalk-Haloids von
!•• X. RI. Zippe. — iJenkscbrifteu der Kaiser. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Wathematisch-natiirwissensehaftliche Classe iii. Bd. 1st Lief. p. 109.
Traite de Mineralogie par A. Dufrenoy. 2me Ed. Tome 2me, p. 297.
III. 12
178 Mr. Sullivan on some Prismatic Form^ of
catures of tlie lateral edges, from Samson mine in the Hartz,
says that the faces are dull and somewhat rough, as is frequently
the case with those prisms (" les faces en sont mates et un peu
raboteuses, circonstance frequent pour le second prism (i. e., d^)
k six faces"). The difference in lustre between the faces of the
two kinds of prisms is characteristically seen in the dodecagonal
prisms (chaux carbonatee periododecaedre of Haiiy), which is
the combination goP, goR, oP {d} e^ a}) ; the faces gcR {f) are
always very much more brilliant than goP (d}). This difference of
lustre is one of the distinctions relied upon to distinguish the faces
of the two kinds of hexagonal prisms from one another. Dufrenoy
also notices this difference between the two kinds of prismatic
faces in the twelve-sided prisms.
Several forms of the rhombohedral prism occur at the Lu-
ganure mines, county of Wicklow, which are worked for galena
in a veinstone consisting chiefly of quartz, in a granite country.
Among these may be mentioned goP, oR {d^^ a^), consisting of
small hexagonal prisms, with very bright prismatic faces. One
half of the prism is hyaline, and the other opalescent ; the base,
oR is dull. Another variety of the same form also occurs, consist-
ing of crystals one centimetre high, and with basal edges one cen-
timetre long. Each crystal has a sort of rude triang-ular pris-
matic milky nucleus, surrounded by a perfectly hyaline enve-
lope, reminding one of the description of Haiiy given above.
Owing to the number of cleavage planes, some crystals are not
transparent. The face oR is, in most instances, pecuHarly
striated, in others it is, as it were, coated with a thin porcela-
neous layer. These crystals may be easily cleaved parallel to
the alternate basal edges, which are sharp, and without any
trace of modifying planes. The form oR, ooR (a*, e^) also occurs
in beautiful hexagonal plates, with very bright prismatic faces,
and composed of exceedingly tliin alternating layers of white
opaque, and hyaline matter, the base oR being always opaque,
dull, but beautifully white. Haiiy 's description of the prismatic
kind embraces this variety Hkewise — in fact, the specimens
from Luganure here described illustrate perfectly Haiiy's de-
scription.
I have lately, however, met with another form, consisting of
hexagonal plates, of from one millimetre to one and a half thick,
with basal edges of from five to twenty millimetres. The base
has a bright nacreous lustre, much brighter than what I have
ever seen in any other specimen ; striated and uneven, in conse-
quence of the lapping of smaller plates. The most of the tabular
prisms are, in fact, compound twins to the base oR {a}). Some
twins also occur to the faces of the prism, and finally, to a
Calcite from Luganure. 179
rhomboliedron. It is owing to this twin structure that the
crystals are not generally transparent, for in thin plates they are
perfectly hyaline. Except for the difference of form, a mass of
these crystals, resting on crystalHne quartz, resembles, in a strik-
ing manner, a mass of large crystals of chlorate of potash. Layers
ofgrowth in the direction of the secondary axes can be observed
in some of the prisms ; in many of these the outer shell, about
one millimetre thick, is frequently free from indications of
cleavage, and perfectly transparent. The prismatic faces are dull,
exactly like the appearance of white wax, when sufficiently thin
to be translucent; they are also uneven. These faces exactly
resemble those of the prism ooP (<i'), in specimens which I have
seen from Andreasberg. On this account, I concluded, at first
sight, that I had the combination oP, goP, which would be not
merely rare as an example of the pyramidal prism, but still more
so as a tabular form of it, in which the base would impress its
character upon the crystal, and of which I have not seen
any example recorded. I found, however, that the alternate
edges were modified by rudimentary facets of a rhombohedron,
wliich was placed in the same position, as regards the faces of
the prism, that I have before mentioned as characteristic of goR.
The basal edges not modified were easily removed by cleavage.
I foimd the modifying facets to be those of the rhombohedron
i R' or hK
Associated with the crystals just described, were sometimes
found white opaque crystals, like those from Andreasberg, and
others three or four milHmetres thick, upon which were rudi-
mentary facets of a scalenohedron. I have not been able to get
any good specimens of these varieties.
It may be worth while to enumerate, from Zippe's excellent
memoir, the tabular prismatic forms which have been hitherto
observed; with a \aew of determining the exact position of
the example just described in the series They are as follow :
1. oR, 2P, a>R, ooP {a\ e\ e\ d}) figured by Levy.^
2. oR, ^R', GcR (aS i\ e^) white tabular crystals from Wear-
dale in Durham.
3. oR, 00 R, QoP {a\ e^, d}) from Andreasberg.
4. oR, 2R' ooR, ooP {a\ e\ e\ d}) from Andreasberg,
5. oR, IR', ^3_ j^^ Qcp fpoj3^ Ajidreasberg.
6. oR, GoR from Andreasberg, Marienberg, Schneeberg,
Joachimsthal, and Schemnitz.
The last mentioned form from Luganure, which is oR, ooR,
'Description d'une collection de mineraux forraee par H. Heuland, etc,
Londres, 1837, fig. 87.
12b
180 Mr. Sullivan on some Prismatic Forms of Calcite.
^R' (a*, e^, 6'), approaches nearest to No. 6, from wliich it differs,
so far as can be expressed by a formula, only by tbe rudimentary
rbomboliedral facets. If the faces ^R' became so developed as to
render the faces ooR subordinate to them, it would pass into the
form No. 2 from Weardale. I have, indeed, found a few imper-
fect crystals from Luganure, in which the prismatic faces are only
rudimentary, the outhne of the tabular crystal being rhombo-
hedral.
Although, as I have above observed, the prismatic faces ooR
are sometimes dull, the combination of brilliant nacreous oR
faces with wax-like prismatic faces exactly like those character-
istic of the faces goP is, so far as I am aware, extremely rare. In
the mineralogical collection of the Museum of Irish Industry there
is a specimen from Andreasberg, in tabular crystals somewhat
thicker than those from Luganure, which I have described.
The same kind of rudimentary facets occur in the alternate
basal edges. I have not had an opportunity of determining
whether they belong to -^R' (6'). The prismatic faces have the
wax-like dullness of the Luganure specimens, but the crystals
are opaque, and the faces oR are dull, and, in other respects,
very different in appearance from those just mentioned. In the
same collection characteristic specimens of the other forms from
Luganure, which I have mentioned, are to be found, as well as of
several others, of which I have not yet been able to procure
specimens."*
* It is to be regretted that the description, both crystallographic and miner-
alogical, of the minerals from Irish localities, which are to be found in Irish
collections, have not been more generally published. It is only by the careful
study of the conditions under which certain forms of minerals are found, the first
element of which is a faithful record of the circumscribed locaUties in which they
occur, that we can hope to arrive at a solution of the important problem in
molecular physics — the causes which produce modifications of form in bodies.
The " Manual of the Mineralogy of Great Britain and Ireland, by Robert
Philips Greg. F.G.S.. and William G. Letsom", forming, I believe, one of the
admirable series of Van Voorst, is a most praiseworthy step in this direction.
It is with regret, however, that I have to state that this otherwise excellent and
useful work is full of the gravest errors regarding Irish localities ; errors, too,
of the strangest kind, not mineralogical. but geographical, and which one
would scarcely expect to find made respecting the divisions of an Asiatic
country. I do not speak of such errors as Rovenagh and Borenagh for Bovevagh
(pp. 54 and 88), Bum Beg for Bun Beg (p. 101), or Glen Maceness for Glenmac-
nass, which are however, too numerous to be pardonable, but of such errors as
County of Cavenogh for County of Cavan (p. 20) ; " Ballygahfm mine, at Glan-
dore, County of Wicklow' (p 279), Glandore being in the County of Cork ;
" Knockmahon and Tigroney in Waterford" (p. 305), Tigroney being in Wick-
low ; " In Wicklow, at Audley mine" (p. 311), Audley mine being in the County
of Cork. I hope a second edition will enable the authors, not only to correct
these errors, but to greatly extend the list of localities.
181
Art. VIII. — Observations on the Geological Formation and
Chemical Composition of the Surface Deposits from which
Vegetable Soils are Formed. By William K. Sullivan.
IN almost every country in tlie world, and in all latitudes,
superficial accumulations of clay, sand, and gravel occur,
sometimes forming a mere coating of the rocks beneatli, but
often of very considerable tliickness, and covering large areas,
as in Central Asia, Russia, Nortli and South America. These
accumulations may, no doubt, belong to different geological
epochs, and be due to different causes, but the immediate phy-
sical conditions under which they were deposited where we find
them, appear to have been very similar. These accumulations
consist of the detritus of rocks, of various sizes, sometimes con-
fusedly mixed up, but often also consisting of more or less perfectly
stratified beds of clay, sand, and pebbles. The latter are invari-
ably rounded like the pebbles of sea beaches, and are, therefore,
direct evidence that they were subjected to the action of moving
water long enough to round them by their mutual attrition.
These superficial accumulations have not received that atten-
tion from geologists which their extent as a portion of the earth's
crust entitles them to, and which their importance in connection
with animal and vegetable life imperatively demands. The
causes to which they are due have, however, been often specu-
lated upon, but while all have admitted the agency of water in
some way, various theories have been proposed to account for its
mode of action. Geological opinion has undergone a notable
change since the period, not long since, when the phenomena
observed in studying the physical constitution of the globe were
explained by violent cataclasms succeeded by periods of repose.
There is now a disposition to consider that the continued action
of existing causes is sufficient to satisfactorily explain all the
phenomena which the study of the earth's crust makes us ac-
quamted with. The hypothesis which attributed the formation
of these superficial accumulations to sudden and violent waves
sweeping over the country, bearing along masses of rock detritus,
has accordingly fallen into oblivion. It could only have been
proposed in ignorance, or, at all events, in utter forgetfulness, of
the phenomena which it proposed to account for, inasmuch as it
left not only unexplained, but was even wholly at variance with,
some of the most important of them ; it did not, for instance, show
what originally produced and rounded the gravel, and ground
into sand and clay such enormous masses of rock as must have
182 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
been necessary to form such extensive deposits. A series of
great waves sweeping along may have transported the detritus,
but it could scarcely have produced it ; it could only remove
matter from one place and deposit it on another : and, secondly,
how could a few violent waves possessing force enough to carry
along detritus sufficient to cover immense districts to the depth,
often, of more than one hundred feet, produce the ripple marks
indicative of ordinary tides, which may be so frequently observed
on the layers of sand, or, indeed, produce the regular stratifica-
tion which occurs frequently in such deposits, the clay of which
is often finely laminated, and yet covered with alternating layers
of gravel, sand, etc.?
The isolated islands of one kind of rock, which are found in
many places resting upon other rocks, such as the outher of car-
boniferous limestone at Taghmon, in the county of Wexford,
described by Mr. Jukes (to take an example from a district not
very far from that which will hereafter furnish us with the chief
data regarding the formation of soils), show us that at one period
these isolated masses formed part of a continuous sheet of the
same rock, which covered the whole of the intervening country
between the outlier and the main mass. Many valleys also prove
that they have been formed by erosion, the opposite sides show-
mg the corresponding sections of the eroded rocks- This partial
or complete removal of the rocks of a district is termed denudation,
and is obviously an important process for modifying the physical
features of a country. The detritus of the rocks removed must
have formed the materials of new formations. This process was,
no doubt in full activity at all geological periods, and may be set
down as the source of the superficial accumulations which I have
been discussing.
Any hypothesis which pretends to explain the formation of
such deposits must be two-fold : it must not merely explain the
circumstances under which they were deposited, but must also in-
clude an explanation of the origin of the materials of which they
are composed, that is, explain the cause and manner of the de-
nudation which produced the clay, sand, and gravel. The
wave-theory, or other violent causes, having been found unte-
nable, it has been proposed to account for both the deposition of
these deposits, and the denudation which gave the materials,
by the action, sometimes singly, and sometmies conjointly, of
currents, glaciers, and floating ice. The existence, at one period,
of a great glacial sea in Western Europe has been received with
considerable favour by, perhaps, the majority of geologists. The
recognition of ice as an agent in abrading rocks, and transport-
ing the detritus, if it did not actually originate with the inves-
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 183
tigations of Agassiz on the glaciers of the Swiss Alps, certainly
received from them a more extended geological application.
The moraines which those frozen rivers bear on their surface
explain very satisfactorly the occurrence of the detritus of the
higher mountains far down in the valleys, in positions which, it
would be difficult to suppose, they reached through the agency
of liquid water alone. Their onward motion accounts for the
grooved surface of rocks, and for the erosion, at least in part, of
some valleys. The floating about of icebergs, formed of detached
masses of glaciers, which run into lakes or seas, and leaving upon
them part of the detritus, which constitutes the moraines, affords,
no doubt, a very satisfactory explanation, though, certainly, not
the only possible one, of the distribution of erratic blocks, which
are found scattered over many parts of Europe. The discussion
of the glacial theory does not, however, enter into the subject of
the present paper, and has only been incidentally mentioned in
order that, in discussing hereafter the nature of the materials of
which soils are composed, we may be enabled to keep in mind
the geological bearings of the subject.
§•2.
The vegetable soil rests upon the accumulations of sand, clay,
etc., wherever they occur. Sometimes it is simply a portion of
the upper layer intermixed with vegetable matter, and more or
less acted upon by the oxygen of the air. Sometimes it appears
to be a different deposit from the mass upon which it rests. In
either case the soil must have likewise been formed by matter
transported by water. Some of the richest soils in the world
have, undoubtedly, been formed by alluvial mud, that is, by
matter carried down by rivers, and which is deposited in lakes
or estuaries. Some soils have also been slowly formed by the
action of water and air, aided by plants, upon the surface of
rocks. Such soils are usually very thin, even where the rock
decomposes rapidly, and except where land-slips have taken
place, or where they have been formed upon the steep sides of
hills, and gradually fallen down, they rest directly upon the rock
from which they are formed. I have seen a calcareous ash con-
glomerate, which decomposed so rapidly and perfectly, that a
block which still exhibited the planes of jointing was permeated
to the depth of several inches by the roots of plants, and pierced
by numerous worm-holes, and crumbled between the fingers into
a yellowish brown loam, while in the interior it was gray and as
hard as Hmestone. But even those soils which have been formed
by decomposition of the subjacent rock are subjected to the
action of running water, which, without being able to carry
184 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
the whole mass away, nevertheless continually washes out the
finest part, which it bears away as mud and deposits upon the
lower groimds.
The few observations which I have made are sufficient
to show that very great differences may exist between soils,
which may be entirely due to the manner in which they are
fcjrmed. In any inquiry concerning the properties of soils,
our first business should obviously be to endeavour to as-
certain the manner in which the particular ones to be ex-
amined were formed. From this point of view we may
classify soils into: 1. those which have been formed by the
slow decay of the subjacent rocks, and which have not con-
sequently been subjected to the action of water, beyond that
which falls upon them as rain ; 2. alluvial soils, or those formed
by the detritus and mud of rivers; and 3. soils which rest
upon the detritus of ancient sea-beaches or sea-bottoms. The
general character of the first kind of soils is indicated by
that of the rock upon which they rest. If it be homoge-
neous, that is, composed of one kind of mineral, the soil will
consist of the detritus of that mineral, more or less decom-
posed. The chemical properties of two specimens of such a soil
will not be found to materially differ, while the physical pro-
perties may be totally unlike. If, on the other hand, the rock
be a mixture of several minerals, the quahties of the soil may
vary considerably within short spaces, according as one or the
other constituent predominated. The second and third kinds of
soil being made up in most cases of the detritus of many rocks,
mixed in ever-varying proportions, no two specimens can possess
the same composition or physical properties. This fact, which
is of the greatest importance in connection with all attempts to
determine the comparative values of different soils, will be ren-
dered more evident by a discussion of the action of water in
transporting detiitus and depositing it in new positions.
§3.
The transporting power of water depends upon its velocity ;
according to Hopkins, the law of its progressive increase,
estimated by the weight of the pebbles of a given form and
density, which it is capable of stirring, is as the sixth power
of the velocity of the current ; that is, if we double the swift-
ness of a current, it will move pebbles of the same density and
form, sixty-four times as heavy: if we quadruple its velocity,
the weight capable of being moved will be increased 2048
times. The most casual obsepvation shows us that, whatever
may be the propelHng force of a cm'rent of water, it cannot
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 185
move all kinds of detritus with the same facility ; the mota-
"bility of the latter depends upon the size, density, and form of
the component particles, and on the position of each with regard
to the neighbouring ones, that is, to the existence of greater or
lesser obstacles in the way of their onward motion. The less
the density and weight, other things being equal, the more
easily pebbles are moved along. The more nearly a pebble
approaches a sphere, the more readily it can be moved; the
flatter or more elongated or angular the forms, the more force
will be required to move it. If a heap of detritus consisting
of dijfferent sized worn fragments of coal sandstone (sp. gr.
2.60), Silurian sandstone (sp. gr. 2.76), carboniferous lime-
stone (sp. gr. 2.72), coal shale (sp. gr. 2.59), mica slate
(sp. gr. 2.69), greenstone (sp. gr. 2.85), were to be exposed
to the action of a current of water moving at a certain ve-
locity, it would be found that those rocks which wear into
more or less round fragments would move first, following the
order of their density and volume. Those, on the contrary,
which were flat, as the shales and slates, would be moved
with most difliculty. The result would be a redistribution of
the detritus, by which the largest fragments of coal grit, sand-
stone, and limestone would be mingled with the smaller frag-
ments of slate ; the larger fragments of the slate, being most diffi-
cult to move, would be nearly altogether separated from the
rocks whioh form round pebbles. But even the disposition of the
latter would vary at every step, according as the influence of
form, density, or volume would dominate or compensate.
If we watch the action of a current of water upon detritus, we
shall find that the transportation is eiFected in two distinct ways :
1. by shoving the fragments along the ground; and 2. by lifting
them and bearing them along. It is obvious that the comparative
amount of detritus which would be transported in each way
would greatly modify the arrangement of the fragments when
again at rest. The proportion lifted would depend, among other
things, upon the density of the substances forming the detritus —
the pebbles of smaller specific gravity being more easily moved
than those of higher, upon the force of the current, and the slope
or inclination of the bottom upon which the detritus moved.
The greater the inclination in the direction of the current, the
more easily would the material be lifted. Hence, on a shelving
shore, the detritus is oftener lifted up by the retiring wave than
by the advancing one.
§.4.
The distribution of detritus shoved along would be very dif-
186 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
ferent from that transported while in suspension. The finer part
of all detritus is always lifted, and as it is precisely that part
which is of most importance in the formation of soils, it will be
desirable to study somewhat more in detail the circumstances
upon which the deposition of solid matter in suspension in water
depends. Those circumstances are extremely variable, and
scarcely admit of accurate determination. It is not difiicult to de-
termine the velocity with which homogeneous bodies of a definite
form freely fall, without initial velocity, through a fluid. M. De
Hennezel, for instance, finds that the acquired velocity at any
moment of a spherical body, falling, without initial velocity, in
a resisting medium, varies according to a law of progression
somewhat less rapid than the direct ratio of the square roots of
the density and the diameter of the body, and in the inverse
ratio of the square root of the density of the fluid. ^ Hence it fol-
lows that for two spherical bodies of the densities D and d, and the
diameters A and 3, falHng each in a fluid of the density Q for
the first, and q for the second, the corresponding velocities, V and
v^ will be given in functions of one another by the expression
V _ ./"DxKxq
V " ^ dx^xQ
This law has been experimentally confirmed by M. Pemolet. It
would, however, be clearly impracticable to attempt to give an
expression for the fall of bodies of indeterminate ^hape, and
whose motion, in addition, would be modified at every instant
by impinging against each other. Indeed, mathematical expres-
sions, were they possible, would scarcely be useful. Still it is
always desirable to have some accurate data as standards by
which to correct our general conclusions.
The chief circmnstances which influence the fall of bodies in
water are, volume or size, density, and shape, being in fact the
same that influence the motability when exposed to a current of
water. The foregoing formula will give us a standard by which
to estimate the influence which calibre and density would have
on the velocity of falling bodies. Fortunately an interesting
series of experiments, made by M. Pernolet with a view of ascer-
taining how far metallic ores could be concentrated for the pur-
poses of smelting by allowing them to fall through water,^ afford
us some data for estimating the influence of form, which is by
far the most important of the three. By experiments made with
different sized shot in their usual spherical form, and more or less
flBttened, he has shown that it requires a difference of calibre in
• Anna! des Mines, 4"^^ Serie, t. iv., p. 353.
' Ibid, t. XX., pp. 389, 535.
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 187
the proportion of 1 : 2 in order to produce a difference in the
time of full in the proportion of 1 to less than 1^, while the
slightest possible change of form, such, for example, as that of a
sphere into a cube or cylinder, the dimensions of which would be
I less than the diameter of the sphere, would be sufficient to
produce an equal difference in the duration of the fall. The
following table shows the results which M. Pernolet obtained in
experiments made upon the fall in a column of water 6 metres
high, of 11 pieces of lead of the same volume, but shaped diffe-
rently, but so that the greatest dimensions of any of them did
not exceed twice the diameter of the one formed into a sphere.
Form.
Diameter in
Thickness
Duration of fall
Millimetres.
in MUlimfetres.
in Seconds.
1 Sphere
14 to 15
14 to 15
3.91
2 Cube
11 „ 12
11 „ 12
5.85
3 CyUnder
11 „ 12
13 „ 14
5.25
4 „
17
7
6.50
5 „
20
5 to 6
7.16
6 Prism
8 by 8
26 „ 27
7.33
7 „
17 „ 19
6 „ 7
7.60
8 »
22 „ 23
3 „ 4
9.25
9 „
63 „ 3i
2
8.33
10 Cylinder
26
3 to 4
9.50
11 »
42
H
10.673
This table shows in a striking manner the influence of shape
alone on the velocity of bodies falling through water.
The result of a number of experiments upon spheres of the
same density, but of different weights, showed that a differ-
ence in the diameters in the ratio of 1 : 2, produced a differ-
ence in the times of fall in the ratio of 1,000 : 1,414; and
that, in order to double the time of fall, the diameter should be
reduced in the ratio of 4 : 1. M. Pernolet was not able to deter-
mine experimentally the influence of density upon the time of
fall, but the maximum influence may be stated to be about
100 : 300, or that between quartz and platinum; but as the
densities of the commoner rocks differ but very little from
each other, the maximum variation produced, in the time of
fall of detritus of rocks by this cause, would certainly not exceed
the ratio of 100 to 115.
' Observations. — No. 1, the time varied between S" and 4"; No. 6, the time
also varied in this case between 7" and 8", the former corresponding to a ver-
tical fall, and the latter to a spiral one. No. 8 was thrown on the flat, or in the
direction of its chief axis, without producing any variation in the time of fall.
No, 9 always fell flat, whether it was thrown so or in the direction of its major
axis. No. 11 was always thrown flat, and yet the duration varied from 10"
to 12".
188 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
§. 5.
We have now to consider what would be the combined effect
of all the influences which could modify the time of fall of bodies
in water. To determine this point, it would be necessary to
experiment upon bodies of different densities, volumes, and
shapes, simultaneously. It is, however, very difficult to do this.
I have attempted some experiments to determine the order of
deposit of detritus of various sizes, density, and shape ; but not
having adequate means at my disposal, the results which I have
as yet obtained are of no further use than to show the difficulties
which beset such experiments, except, indeed, that they suffi-
ciently indicate the character of the results which may be looked
for. In the absence of data of this kind, it is fortunate that
we possess some experiments of M. Pemolet, in which he
sought to determine the same thing, though for a different
purpose, with those minerals which it is the object of the pro-
cess for washing ores to separate. He took pebbles of galena,
quartz, and coal, substances which exhibit a considerable differ-
ence in their relative densities, divided into four classes according
to size, the classification being effected by means of gratings of
given dimensions. As the bodies which escape through a grating
of any given dimension are not, as is well known, of the same
size, it was necessary to sort by the hand each class into groups,
including, as far as possible, fragments of equal size. The time
of fall for each group, of each class, as in those already quoted,
was made by a series of observations upon the fall of isolated
grains through a column of water 6 metres high, and 0°" 20 in
diameter. Similar experiments were made upon the sand pro-
duced by crushing galena, which has a cubical fracture, crystal-
line pyrites, blende, which breaks into smaller fragments, lamel-
lar sulphate of baryta, lamellar carbonate of lime, ribbon quartz,
plumbago, and bituminous coal, classified into seven classes.
It is important to observe here that considerable difference
may exist between the velocity of fall of the same substances
in the state of pebbles and of very fine powder. Bodies
of lamellar structure, for example, may form round pebbles,
but when ground to fine powder, the particles forming the
powder would consist t)f thin plates. The result of this would
be, that while the pebbles might be amongst those which de-
scend fastest, the fine mud produced by their attrition might
be one of the slowest descending kinds. Even though we may
not be able to detect any difference of form between the particles
composing the finest powders of different bodies, there can be
no doubt that such a difference exists. But as many minerals
may occur in several states of aggregation, the mud produced by
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 189
tliem in eacK would possess different velocities of fall. It is
therefore necessary to specify, as above, tlie structure of tlie
minerals used in M. Pernolet's experiments. Owing to the long
time which all fine matters suspended in water take to deposit,
the sHghtest difference in form or specific gravity between them,
influences their time of deposition. Of course, the greater the
height of the column of water through which bodies fall, the
greater will be the duration of the time of fall, and consequently
the greater will be the effects of differences of specific gravity
and shape. Increasing the height of the fall is, consequently,
equivalent to reducing the substance to a finer state of division,
bearing in mind, however, the circumstance just alluded to,
that there may be great differences of shape between the pebbles
and powder which a substance would form.
The following tables contain the results of those experiments ;
in the case of the pebbles, the results for each group are not
given, only the extreme ones, and, in some cases, one or two
intermediate ones.
Table showing the relative Duration oj" the Jail oj" different size pebbles of Galena^
Quartz, and Coal through atill water.
. Dimensions of the Meshes
5 of the Wire Gauze used
^ to classify the pebbles.
GALENA.
QUARTZ.
COAL.
The pebbles
passed thro'
meshes the
side of which
measured in
millimetres :
1
The pebbles
remained on
meshes the
side of
which mea-
sured in
millimetres :
Weight of
pebbles
in
grammes.
Duration
of fall in
seconds.
Weight of
pebbles
in
grammes.
Duration
of fall in
seconds.
Weight of
pebbles
in
grammes.
Duration
of fall in
seconds.
1 30
18
78.33
45.25
17.50
4"60
6 87
6 92
44.20
25.17
2.70
9"30
10 41
22 80
18.00
11.25 -j
5.00
3.75
22 "20
29 77
32 40
43 40
36 46
2 18
7
21.25
12.25
1.43
6 40
6 31
8 30
10.70
4,00 \
0.214
12 60
14 10
24 00
37 20
5.00
2.50 -1
0.333
31 45
30 00
, 42 00
45 60
2 7
6i
1.416
0.040
8 40
9 60
0,900
0.675
0.333
0.234 ^
0.886
15 60
20 85
25 00
20 19
39 30
45 00
0.225 4
0.150
0.050 ^
41 79
62 50
47 81
66 40
87 90
, «
On round
holes 4.44
mm, in di-
ameter.
0.600
0.120
9 84
12 22
0.300
0.100 {
0.062
0.022
21 19
23 62
37 80
26 20
73 95
0.150
0.075
0.020 1
60 75
57 75
67 20
115 80
190
Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
Table shovoing the Relative Duration of the fall of different kinds of Sand
through still water.
6
1
Diameter in Milli-
metres of the round
holes of the sieves
used:
Duration in Seconds of the fall through a column of still water
6 metres deep, of the following Minerals :
The grains
passed
through
holes :
The grains
rested up-
on sieves
with
holes :
Galena.
Crystal-
lized
Pyrites.
Blende
Sulphate
of
Baryta.
Calclte.
Quartz.
Plumba-
go.
Bitumi-
nous
Coal.
4.44
4,17 -
9"00
15 40
13"50
17 00
13"67
20 34
14"67
19 00
18"66
27 66
21"25
66 00
25"33
44 00
75"00
100 50
2
3.94
3.67 i
12 50
17 45
16 67
24 60
19 00
36 25
17 50
27 25
22 26
44 00
25 95
65 40
40 75
81 33
65 50
146 00
3
2.77
2.50 ■[
15 51
21 75
20 35
32 60
25 33
63 00
21 00
45 67
30 00
62 00
30 09
118 50
47 33
106 67
79 00
214 00
4
1.77
1.50 1
18 48
31 20
36 50
38 00
41 67
75 67
31 33
70 66
37 00
85 00
45 50
75 50'
64 33
181 33
122 25
308 75
5
1.50
remain- C
ed OToA
lawn, c
22 00
41 25
39 99
94 33
37 33
102 66
39 50
97 25
66 26
150 25
52 00
123 67
»'
If
6
7
passed
through
lawn.
remain- C
ed on-<
silk, i
46 75
122 08
25 00
61 33
;;
65 00
124 60
98 65
260 15
12160
227 50
»»
"
Passed through silk.
67 00
163 00
;;
^^
61 67
145 34
111 99
283 00
"'
"
;;
These tables sKow us in a very striking manner the joint in-
fluence of density, size, and form upon the fall of bodies in
water, and consequently indicate to us what would be the
general order of deposition of a heterogeneous mass of debris.
Thus, for example, the different kinds of pebbles named in the
first class might be more or less separated from one another by
dropping them into a column of water about twenty feet high,
provided each pebble was able to fall freely. Pebbles of quartz
and galena, of the sizes included in the second class, would also
be separated, while some of the smaller quartz and larger coal
pebbles would be deposited together. Similar results would be
obtained with pebbles of the sizes included in the third and
fourth classes. But if all the kinds and sizes included mider the
fo^ classes in the table were dropped into water, the smaller
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 191
fragments of galena and the larger pebbles of quartz would be
deposited together, while beneath, the galena, would be almost
free from quartz ; upon the mixture of galena and quartz, a
layer of the larger pebbles of quartz would be deposited ; upon
this, a mixture of quartz and coal ; and lastly, coal-dust. If the
different kinds of sand named under class 1, were dropped into
water, and that the descending grains did not interfere with one
another, we would have the following order of deposition, begin-
ning at the bottom: 1. a little galena; 2. a varying mixture of
galena, pyrites, and blende; 3. galena, p3rrites, blende, and sul-
phate of baryta ; 4. blende, sulphate of baryta, and carbonate of
lime; 5. blende and carbonate of lime; 6. carbonate of lime and
quartz; 7. quartz and plumbago; 8. unmixed quartz; and 9.
unmixed coal. If sands of all dimensions and kinds were
mingled together and dropped into a column of water of about
twenty feet high, the separation of the different kinds of sand
would be still less perfect, but the grains of each of the sub-
stances deposited together would be of different sizes; thus,
galena powder, which would pass through lawn, would be depo-
sited in equal time with grains of blende which would not pass
through holes l^'^.S in diameter, sulphate of baryta of all dimen-
sions below that which would rest on holes 2'"'"-.50 in diameter,
calcite grains varying in size from those which would just pass
through holes of 2"""-.5 in diameter, down to powder that would
just remain on lawn, quartz of nearly all sizes, plumbago of
nearly all sizes, down to grains which would rest on sieves with
holes of l"™-.5, and lastly, coal of all sizes, down to grains which
would scarcely pass through holes of about 2°™.7.
Form and specific gravity also influence the fall of precipi-
tates of different bodies simultaneously thrown down ; and ac-
cordingly, if two or three bodies be precipitated at the same
time from a solution, in sufficient quantity to form a deposit of
from one to two inches thick, it will be found that the bodies
formed by the decomposition will not be uniformly mingled in
the deposit. The consistence of precipitates, and even the form
of their particles, may be differently modified by heat ; the rela-
tive proportions of the different substances in various parts of a
deposit formed by chemical precipitation will, therefore, vary
according to the temperature at which the precipitation takes
place. It is also probable that the form of the particles of a
precipitate may have some influence in the mutual decomposi-
tion of salts, a subject which I hope to be able to discuss more
fully at another time. Where precipitations take place in great
bodies of water, as in seas and oceans, a more or less complete
separation of simultaneously precipitated substances may be
192 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
effected in this manner — a circumstance wHcli may help to
explain many obscure geological phenomena.
§•6.
The application of the preceding tables and observations to
explain the phenomena of geological deposits is obvious. It
must, however, be borne in mind that the tables of M. Pemolet
were constructed upon data obtained in experiments made upon
isolated grains, or, at least, upon such small quantities of sand
that the different particles could not interfere with one another's
motions. The fall of detritus in water would, however, be a
much more complicated phenomenon. In the first place, the
depositions would rarely take place in perfectly still water, but
more generally in currents of variable force, which would give
very complicated resultants for the actual forces influencing the
deposition : then the individual pebbles, grains of sand, or parti-
cles of mud, would not commence their fall at the same moment ;
there would, on the contrary, be a succession of falls, — the most
rapidly falling bodies starting at one moment, overtaking the
slower falHng ones of the preceding intervals of time ; and, again,
the agitation of the water would cause the neighbouring pebbles,
grains, or particles to impinge against each other, and thus modify
the duration of one another's fall. It is evident from this, that,
in reality, no complete separation of the materials of detritus
could take place by falKng through water. The shallower the
water and the larger the pebbles, the more confused would be the
arrangement of the deposit ; the deeper the water and the finer
the detritus, the more perfect would be the separation according
to size, density, and form. But, however confused the arrange-
ment of a heap of detritus deposited in water may be, the opera-
tion of the three circumstances influencing the fall of bodies just
named may be traced in it.
The deposits formed in deep seas, taking into account the
nature of the detritus which may happen to come into them,
must consequently be more homogeneous than those formed in
troubled shallow water. The influence of the duration of the
time of fall may often be traced in the laminae of sandy slates and
shales, not merely in regard to the proportion of sand and silt in
each layer, but even in the composition of the fine silty layers
themselves. The difference in the mechanical and chemical
composition of argillaceous and arenaceous rocks is often rendered
strikingly evident in rocks which have become foliated under the
influence of heat and pressure. Hence it is that there is so little
accordance between the different analyses which have been made
of specimens of these, or, indeed, of any sedimentary rocks not
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 193
composed of a single chemical substance, such as sulphate or car-
bonate of lime.
On sea-beaches, and narrow channels between islands, the
mechanical aspect, and, in general, the chemical composition, of
the deposits of detritus must vary at almost every step, because
the forces which have influenced that deposition must have varied
at almost every instant, owing to the changes in depth of the
water, force and direction of currents, and the comparative free-
dom or obstruction offered to the motion of the individual peb-
bles, grains, etc., which would, among other things, depend upon
the quantity and size of the detritus in suspension, or shoved
along at the same time. In some cases, even another influencing
circumstance, which I have not hitherto noticed at all, might
come into play in the neighbourhood of great rivers — namely,
the diiference of density between sea and fresh water. The influ-
ence of this circumstance would, of course, be trifling, and I only
mention it to show the great variety of causes which operate
in the deposition of sediment in water. We may, accordingly,
expect to find that the loose accumulations of sand, mud, and
giavel, formed under the influence of all the causes named, in
shallow, obstructed seas, would be confused mixtures of all sizes
and kinds of materials at one point, coarsely stratified at another
point, often within a few yards, or even feet ; here thin bands or
pockets of gravel in close proximity to similar ones of sand or
clay; at another, great tliick deposits of fme mud; and, at an-
other, heaps of loose sifted gravel ; and so on.
I have yet to notice another som'ce of difference of composi-
tion in deposits, — the meeting of two currents bearing or shoving
along detritus of different kinds of rocks. A strong tidal
current moving along an extended shore formed of different
kinds of rock, would mingle up the detritus of each, in some
places more, and in others less. The meeting of two currents
bearing diiferent kinds of detritus may be prevented by a head-
land, or island, or reef of rock ; in this case, we would find a
complete difference between the detritus at opposite sides, — the
two kinds being often separated by an interval of not more than
a few yards. Again, after the deposition of a bed of detritus,
the direction of the currents which transported it may be
changed, and a current bearing a different kind pass over the
same place, and leave a new and different deposit. This change
of direction in currents is, indeed, the circumstance which most
modifies the effects of density, size, and form in the deposition of
transported matter, above all, of that shoved along. Its influ-
ence may be fully seen by watching the effects produced by
damming up the bed of a small stream. Beds of detritus may
III. 13
194 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
also be subjected to the action of water subsequent to their depo-
sition, by which a complete or partial rearrangement of their
materials would be effected. If distinct currents had successively
deposited two or more beds of different kinds of materials, they
may get mingled up, and only one bed formed in the redistri-
bution. This circumstance should be borne in mind in any
deductions made respecting the direction of the currents which
transported any particular bed of drift from the kind of pebbles
which it may contain.
§• 7.
A large part of Ireland is covered with superficial accumula-
tions of clay, sand, and gravel, which bear evidence of their
having been subjected to the action of moving water. On this
account the name " drift" is generally applied to them. In some
districts the materials composing the drift appear to be derived
in greater part from the breaking up of Hmestone rocks ; in others
the materials are derived from grits, slates, granite, etc. The
former is chiefly found in districts the local rocks of which are
limestone ; but limestone drift is frequently found to rest on slate,
and granite rocks also, and sometimes separated from any Hme-
stone rocks by a considerable tract of country. These accumula-
tions are not confined to plains or tlie bottoms of valleys, but
frequently occur on the sides of mountains, at heights of from
500 to 700 feet above the sea, and in some instances even at the
height of more than 1,000 feet. The term drift is sometimes
restricted to accumulations containing limestone pebbles, but
such a distinction is not correct. I may observe here that the
term hmestone gravel seems to be given to a mass of detritus
upon very slight grounds. I examined the pebbles contained in
twenty-five deposits, of various degrees of fineness, described
as limestone gravel, limestone drift, etc., and found that the
amount of carbonate of lime in the pebbles of any of them did
not exceed 23 per cent., while in several it fell below 1 per cent.
The materials of the drift deposits are sometimes confusedly
mixed up and sometimes coarsely stratified, the beds of sand
often exhibiting ripple marks. They also contain shells.
On the central plain of Ireland, the general outUne of the
country is either wholly given or greatly modified by the drift
accumulations. In the depressions, the coarse hmestone gravel
is usually covered with calcareous clay, and upon this rests
frequently a bed of shell marl consisting almost entirely of
carbonate of lime,* and covered with turf, or sometimes inter-
* In four specimens from different parts of the Bog of Allen which I analyzed,
I found 89.96, 92.61, 94.07, and 95.77 per cent, of carbonate of lime respectively.
Formation and Chemical Composition of Soils. 195
stratified with turf. It is in the shell marl and calcareous clay
of this kind that the bones of the gigantic elk are found. It
would thus appear tliat the calcareous clay was deposited in
lakes formed in the depressions in the limestone gravel, the
ridges of which look in some places as if they had formed their
shores. These lakes on becoming shallow became filled with
diatomacese and fresh-water shells, and in time they became
converted into peat swamps.
In some places the drift accumulations are composed of two well-
marked separate deposits, the lower one being wholly composed
of limestone gravel, and the upper of the debris of other rocks.
There is a good example of this on the sea coast, a little beyond
Graystones, a station of the railway between Bray and Wicklow ;
imderneath is a bed of clay and limestone gravel, upon which
rests clay and red grit and shale debris. No limestone now
occurs in the district, but it is probable that this gravel is the
result of the denudation of a former covering over the slate
rocks which has been wholly removed. The slate rocks laid
bare were, of course, also acted upon, and their detritus deposited
upon the limestone.
In other localities masses of limestone gravel are found within
a very short distance of accumulations containing pebbles of
wholly different rocks. The drift of Howth, near Dubhn,
affords a good example of this kind. Leaving the town of
Howth and proceeding along the north shore, near the Martello
tower, I found the pebbles in the drift to consist chiefly of grits,
Hmestone, one or two chalk flints, a few fragments of porphyritic
greenstone, hke that of Lambay, fragments of ferruginous quartz,
like those forming the old red conglomerate of Lambay. On
the road towards the coast-guard station, I found, in addition to
the preceding, fragments of Mourne red granite, chalk flints, a
large lump of greenstone, with green felspar crystals, a large block
of Silurian conglomerate, like that on the south side of Lambay
Island. At a httle distance beyond the last house on the sea road,
I found a fragment of weathered porphyry, like that which is seen
on the shore near Donabate, fragments of porphyry, with a reddish
paste, and green crystals exactly like that of Lambay. A
little further to the eastward, I found epidotic greenstone, with
purplish carbonate of lime, identical with the green rock
enclosing lumps of carbonate of lime found a little to the north
of the harbour of Lambay Island, a small fragment of granite,
with black mica, a chalk flint, a fragment of decomposed Lambay
porphyry. North of the lighthouse, I observed green and dark
gray grits of local Howth rocks ; pebbles of segregated argillaceous
limestones, like those from the shales exposed in the railway
13 b
196 Mr. Sullivan on the Geological
cutting near Donabate; Silurian limestone nodules, containing
the cliaracteristic fossils ; large pebbles of hard highly crystalline
limestone ; compact trap, with a somewhat reddish paste ; a mass
of Lambay porphyry; Syenitic greenstone, with whitish paste
and crystals of green hornblende, exactly like that forming
Lambay Head ; compact greenstone ; Donabate fine conglomerate
greenstone ash conglomerate^ like that found near the south
shore of Lambay ; rolled quartz pebbles ; one or two lumps of
granite; grits and limestone; the latter two forming the chief
mass. On the south side of the hill, and not far from the hght-
house, I observed nothing but local quartzose grits and slates, not
containing any northern rocks. Near the Martello tower on the
south side, the drift is, so far as I saw, unmixed black limestone
gravel. This remarkable change in the character of the drift as
we proceed round the Hill of Howth, proves that the physical
conformation of the district during the deposition of the drift
gravel was not much different from that now existing. A
northern current brought the detritus of the shore north of
Howth and of Lambay Island ; where the headland deflected this
current, the local rocks of the hill itself formed the detritus,
while a western or north-western current brought limestone drift
from the great limestone plain to the west.
A careful study of the materials forming the drift over a
large area of country, would, with the aid of the principles
above laid down, regarding the transportation of detritus, enable
us to determine the direction and force of the currents which
formed the drift, and the probable depth of the water in which
it was deposited. The data thus obtained might enable us to
determine approximatively the physical conformation of the
land and sea during the drift epoch. Much assistance may
be derived in such inquiries from a study of the ripple markings
and bedding of the drift wherever it occurs. Mr. H. C. Sorby,
as is well known, has shown how the direction of a current
present during the deposition of a rock can be determined from
the ripple markings, and what he calls " drift bedding", or, as
he has since proposed to call the whole of this class of pheno-
mena, " current structures". In the case of the drift, however,
this kind of evidence would not be sufficient, though it would
greatly aid that derived from the thorough study of the htho-
logical character of the materials, contrasted with that of the
rocks of the district.
§■8.
The classification of soils which I made at p. 184, into those
which have not been subjected to the action of running water
Formation and Chemical Com,position of Soils. 197
and into those which have been deposited in it, will sufficiently
explain why I have gone into so much detail regarding the
deposition and transportation of detritus. Every word which
has been said in the preceding pages applies to the superficial
layer forming the soil, whether it be a portion of the great mass
of underlying drift, or another kind of detritus. Soils must
consequently be formed, in the majority of cases, of a mixture
of difterent minerals, in various states of aggregation, and must
vary in chemical composition and physical properties, according
as the relative proportion or sizes of the different minerals vary.
Hence, no two samples of the same soil can be exactly alike in
chemical or physical constitution. It is, therefore, no wonder
that the experiment made by the Landes-Oekonomie-Collegium,
or Board of Agriculture of Prussia, to ascertain the exhaustion
of the soil by any given crop, should have proved a failure.
They adopted the following method: — " Before the experiment,
the chemical condition of the experimented field was first de-
termined; it was then cultivated successively with the same
crops (peas and rape), until it was incapable of yielding any
more produce, when finally the condition of the exhausted
soil was again ascertained by a similar analysis, in order to
compare the difference thus obtained in the soil with the
amount of ash of the successive crops. In order as much as
possible to divest the results of all local influences, it was
further resolved that the experiments should embrace soils in
fourteen different places of the kingdom. Finally, as an ac-
cessory to the above condition, in 
