LETTER XXX.

Dr. HICKES to Dr. CHARLETT.

On the study of the Northern Languages.

DEAR SIR,

November 24, 1694.

YOURS of Oct. 26 came not to my hands till the 7th instant, for Mr. P. and I did not meet sooner, and then I happened to be very busy in preparing for a journey to the place where I am now. I should have been glad to have waited upon you in London, if you had

"stage where I now stond, I have brought you some fyne "biskets baked in the oven of Charitie, carefully conserved "for the chickens of the Church, the sparrows of the spirit, "and the sweet swallowes of Salvation, &c."

"He was some time of Cardinal College in Oxford, afterwards M. of Arts, and at length Clerk of the Signet to K. Henry VIII. and K. Edward VI. from the last of whom he obtained Letters (tho' a mere layman) to preach the word of God in any Church of his Majesty's dominions. A good scholar he was of his time, but an enemy not only to the Catholic Religion, but to the ceremonies of the Church of England now in their infancy."

"St. Mary's Pulpit was then of fine carved Ashler stone, joining to the upper pillar of the south side of the body of the Church; which Pulpit was taken away when Dr. John Owen was Vicechanc, about 1654, and a framed Pulpit of Wood was set on the pedestal that upheld the frame of Stone." Ath. Oxon. vol. i. c. 183.

come thither, for after I received your letter I stopped one of my vagaries into the country in hopes to wait upon you there. I am glad you are going to found Armenian and Sclavonian letters, you have an oracle for the former language among you, I mean Dr. Hyde, but is there any that studies or designs to study the latter (which I would certainly do, were I but 20 years younger) if there be, I must make bold to trouble him with some queries. Could you get a young ingenious Welshman to study that, and the old Northern languages, you would do the world some service by raising up such a man. For, as I take it, there are four old original languages, the Greek, the Sclavonic, the Gothic, and the Celtic or ancient British, and he that understands them all, as an ingenious Welshman who hath learned Greek may easily do, will be able to illustrate the harmony of languages ancient and modern, Latin also comprehended, because it is little else but Greek. He will also thereby be enabled to illustrate many things in antiquity, which yet lie in darkness, and the discoveries he will find himself able to make in these things will be so delightful to him, that he will scarce be sensible of his pains I designed, had I not been driven from my station,* to have

* Dr. Hickes was deprived February, 1690, for refusing to take the oaths of allegiance. The Deanery of Worcester was shortly after given to Mr. William Talbot, upon which

trained up one to these studies, and made him my amanuensis; but now having neither good health, nor good sight, nor amanuensis to help me, nor quiet enough to do that little I could otherwise do without one, I am become in a manner useless, and good for nothing, and am very far from deserving the compliments you give me with respect to those languages. I once saw in Mr. Wharton's hands a fair Sclavonic Testament, a MS. It was about seven years ago, and then he had some design of learning the language, but I believe hath since laid it aside. If any body would do as much for it as I have done for the Gothic, and Saxon, and since for the old Francic, I would learn it as old as I am, but I can make no more grammars now.

The harmony of languages, and the light they give to antiquity is very pleasant, but yet a man after all will meet with disappointments in these, as well as other studies; as for example, I

Hickes drew up with his own hand a claim of right to it, directed to all the members of the Church, and this he affixed over the great entrance to the choir. Expecting that the government would resent this action, he retired to London, and other places, but Lord Chancellor Somers, highly to his own credit, procured an act of council for the entering a Noli Prosequi to all proceedings against him. This was done out of regard to his virtues and learning, and particularly to encourage him not to drop his great work. See the preface to his Thesaurus Ling. Vet.

thought after having learned the old Northern languages, I should have understood in part the Lapland language, as well as the Swedish, but there is not any likeness or communication between them, as Scheffer told me before, but I could not believe it before I tried, and whether that have any affinity with the Sclavonian, I cannot say, I believe not, and therefore it may well pass for the language of Witches: I suppose the Veneti or Finlanders speak somewhat like them. I was also pleased with the affinity our own language had with the ancient Northern languages, in all but French and Latin words, and yet there are four common words in it, neither originally French nor Latin, which are not to be derived from them, viz. lad, lass, boy, girl, the last of which Mr. Junius, much below his great understanding, will needs like a pedant, more than a wise Etymologist, derive from garrula,* so un

"GIRLE, Gerle, Puella, virguncula. Quidam putant corruptum ex Garrula. M. Casaubonus vult factum ex xógn, Pupa, juvencula. Cymræis interim herlodd vel werlottyn est Puer, puellus. herlodes, Puella. unde Angl. gerle girle videri potest desumptum. Mere quoque cum C. B. herlodes convenit Angl. harlot, Scortillum. [Hickesius girle, Puella, derivatum putat ab Isl. farlinna, femina. Girle autem veteribus nostris auctoribus Virum, masculum, adolescentem significans, ut idem notavit, manifestè venit ab A. S. ceopl vir, mas.] Junii Etymologicum, Edit, Lye, folio, Oxon.

1743. sub verb. Girle.

willing sometimes are the greatest men to be baffled in their profession, and he certainly was a very great man, and a very modest man. I suppose you have seen the new edition of his book de Picturâ Veterum* in fol. by the learned Grævius of Utrecht. The American writers assure us, that there are new independent languages almost behind every mountain in America, and therefore it is not so strange, that there is one or two in Europe, which have no relation to any of the rest. But these disappointments in languages ought not to dishearten a linguist, since every profession hath insoluble difficulties. I could never yet meet an anatomist, that could give me the reason, that when I rub my forehead, I should sneeze, and in our profession how many texts of scripture, not relating to mysteries, are not yet clearly understood, so that knowledge in the most learned men is imperfect; so imperfect that, as my Lord Bacon observes, all the learning, which hath been in all men from the beginning of the world, would but make one good scholar, if it could be all in one man, and perhaps one

*This excellent edition of Junius's learned work came out just at the time this Letter was written. It was printed by Leers, at Rotterdam, and contains a life of the author, with several additions by the editor. A fine copy, bequeathed by Mr. Godwin, is now in the Bodleian Library,

C. 3. 11. Art.