adjectives are compofed of a noun and cund; others c HA P. of a noun and bær,&c. &c.

degree is ufually Now er or ær is a

AFTER thefe examples, it will be unnecessary to go through all the claffes of adjectives to fhew that they are either participles of verbs, or have sprung from nouns. Every one who takes that trouble will be convinced of the fact. I will only remark, that the Saxon comparative formed by the addition of er. word which implies priority, and is therefore very expreffively used to denote that degree of fuperiority which the comparative degree is intended to affirm. So eft, which is the termination of the Saxon fuperlatives, is a noun which expreffes munificence or abundance. Tir is a præfix which makes a fuperlative, and tir fignifies supremacy and lordship.

THE Anglo-Saxon VIRBS have effentially contributed to form thofe parts of speech which Mr. Tooke has denominated the abbreviations of language. The verbs, however, are not themselves the primitive words of our language. They are all in a state of compofition. They are like the fecondary mountains of the earth-they have been formed pofterior to the ancient bulwarks of human fpeech, which are the nouns-I mean of course those nouns which are in their elementary state.

IN fome languages, as in the Hebrew, the verbs are very often the nouns applied unaltered to a verbal fignification. We, have examples of this fort of verbs in our English words, love, hate, fear, hope, dream, fleep, &c. These words are nouns, and are alfo ufed as verbs. Of verbs thus,

I.

BOOK made by the fimple application of nouns in a verbal
VIII. form, the Anglo-Saxon gives few examples.

Almost all its other verbs are nouns with a final
fyllable added, and this final syllable is a word ex-
preffive of motion, or action, or poffeffion.

To fhew this fact, we will take fome of the An-
glo-Saxon verbs:

Bad, a pledge.

bær, a bier.

beth, a bath.
bat, a club.

bebod, a command.

bidde, a prayer.

big, a crown.

blifs, joy.

bloftm, a flower.

blot, a facrifice.

bod, an edit.

borg, a loan.

bridl, a bridle.
broc, mifery.
bye, an habitation.
byfeg, business.
byfmr, contumely.
bytla, a builder.
car, care.
ceap, cattle.
cele, cold.

cerre, a bending.
cid, ftrife.
cnyt, a knot.
comp, a battle.
cræft, art.
curs, a curfe.
cwid, a faying.
cyrm, a noife.

cyth, knowledge.

cos, a kifs.

bad-ian, to pledge.

bær-an, to carry.

bæth-ian, to wash.
beat-an, to beat.

bebod-an, to command.
biddan, to pray.
bigan, to bend.
bliffian, to rejoice.
bloftmian, to blossom.
blotan, to facrifice.
bodian, to proclaim.
borgian, to lend.

bridlian, to bridle.

brocian, to afflict.
byan, to inhabit.
byfgian, to be busy.
byfmrian, to deride.
bytlian, to build.

carian, to be anxious.
ceapian, to buy.
celan, to cool.

cerran, to return.

cidan, to quarrel.
cnyttan, to tie.
compian, to fight.
cræftan, to build.
curfian, to curse.

cwyddian, to say.

cyrman, to cry out.
cythan, to make known.
cyffan, to kifs.

If we go through all the alphabet we fhall find that most of the verbs are compofed of a noun, and the fyllables an, ian, or gan. Of these additional fyllables gan is the verb of motion, to go, or the verb agan, to poffefs, and an feems fometimes the abbreviation of anan, to give, and fometimes of the verbs gan and agan. Thus deagan, to tinge, appears to me deag-an, to give a colour; dælan, to divide, dæl-an, to give a part; coffan, to kiss, cof-an, to give a kiss; cursian, to curfe, curf an, to give a curfe while we may presume that carian, to be anxious, is car-agan, to have care; bloft. mian, to bloffom, is bloftm-agan, to have a flower; byan, to inhabit, is by-agan, to have a habitation.. We may also say that cidan, to quarrel, is the abbreviation of cid-gan, to go to quarrel; bæthian, to wash, is bæth-gan, to go to a bath; biddan, to pray, is bidde-gan, to go to pray. The Gothic to pray, is bidgan.

follow, is also filian.

THAT the words gan, or agan, have been abbre viated or foftened into an, or ian, can be proved from several verbs. Thus fylgan, or filigian, to Thus fleogan, to fly, becomes alfo fleon and flion.-So forhtigan, to be afraid, has become alfo forhtian.-So fundigan has be-. come fundian; gethyldgian, gethyldian; fengan,

It is probable that anan is a double infinitive, like gangan to go, and that an is the original infinitive of the verb

СНАР.
I.

BO O K foan and fon; and teogan, teon. The examples of this change are innumerable.

VIII.

THIS abbreviation is alfo proved by fo many of the participles of the abbreviated verbs ending in gend, thus fhowing the original infinitive to have been gen; as frefrian, to comfort,has its participle frefergend; fremian, to profit, freomigend; fulian has fuligend; gæmnian, gæmnigend, &c.

MANY verbs are compofed of the terminations above-mentioned, and of words which exift in the Anglo-Saxon, not as nouns but as adjectives, and of fome words which are not to be met with in the Anglo-Saxon, either as nouns or adjectives. But fo true is the principle, that nouns were the primitive words of these verbs, and that verbs are but the nouns with the additional final fyllables, that we shall very frequently find the noun we fearch for exifting in the state of a noun in some of those languages which have a clofe affinity with the Anglo-Saxon, This language meets our eye in a very advanced ftate, and therefore when we decompose it we cannot expect to meet in itself all its elements. Many of its elements had dropped out of its vocabulary at that period wherein we find it, just as in modern English we have dropped a great number of the words of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. In this treatise, which the neceffary limits of my publication compel me to make very concife, I can only be expected to give a few inftances.

BERAN is to bring forth, or produce; there is no primitive noun answering to this verb in the Anglo-Saxon, but there is in the Francotheotifc,

I.

where we find bar is fruit, or whatever the earth CHA P. produces: ber-an is therefore to give fruit, or to produce.. So mærfian, to celebrate, is from fegan, to speak, and some noun from which the adjective mæra, illustrious, had been formed. The noun is not in the Saxon, but it is in the Francotheotifc, where mera, is fame, or rumour, therefore mærfian, to celebrate a perfon, is mera-fegan, to speak his fame. I have obferved many examples of this fort.

IN searching for the orignal nouns from which verbs have been formed we must always confider if the verb we are inquiring about be a primitive verb or a fecondary verb, containing either of the præfixes a, be, ge, for, on, in, to, with, &c. &c. In these cases we muft ftrip the verb of its præfix, and examine its derivation under its earlier form. The verbs with a præfix are obviously of later origin than the verbs to which the præfix has not been applied.

SOMETIMES the verb confifts of two verbs put together, as gan-gan, to go; fo for letan, to difmifs or leave, is compofed of two verbs, faran, to go, lætan, to let or fuffer, and is literally to let go.

THE Anglo-Saxon NOUNS are not all of the fame antiquity, fomé are the primitive words of the lan guage from which every other has branched, but fome are of later date.

WE have mentioned the nouns of which the adjectives and the verbs have been formed. Such nouns are among the earliest of the language. But the more ancient nouns having been applied to