twenty-five feet. The height of the wall to the top of the floping ftones, is nine feet four inches. The principal entrance feems to have been at the east end of the wall, and a fmaller one on the weft fide. The area of this work is full of rocks and large ftones, fome of which are rocking-ftones. On the eaft fide of this work is a ftone meafuring thirteen feet fix inches in length. It hangs over a precipice, and is fupported by two fmall ftones. 1 Thefe, fays Mr. Rooke, plainly appear to have been fixed by art. On the top is a large rock bafon four feet three inches diameter, clofe to which, on the fouth fide, is an hollow, cut like a chair, with a ftep to reft the feet upon. This, the country people fay, has always been called Cair's chair; from whence we may fuppofe this to have been a feat of justice, where the principal Druid fat, who, being contiguous to the rock-bafon, might have recourfe to appearances in the water, in doubtful cafes. It is natural, therefore, to imagine, from the many facred erections, that this place muft have been intended for holy ufes, or a court of justice.' Art. XX. Remarks on the preceding Article. By Mr. Bray. [To be continued.] Effays on the Origin of Society, Language, Property, Government, Jurifdittion, Contracts, and Marriage. Interspersed with Illuftrations from the Greek and Galic Languages. By James Grant, Efq Advocate. 410. 7s. 6d. Robinfon. THE fubjects of thefe Effays have often exercised the talents of fpeculative writers, and, in point of chronological order, have a claim to the earliest investigations that present themfelves to philofophical enquiry. In tracing the Origin of "Society, the author of the work before us very properly commences with exhibiting the primitive flate of the first parents of mankind. But this happy period proving of fhort duration, there arofe a neceffity of calling into action thofe faculties with which the human race was endowed. To guard against ravenous animals, and to fecure a defence from the inclemencies of the weather, were objects which would foon excite the ingenuity of the late inhabitants of Paradife. Man must therefore have very early employed his art in building himself a cottage, or have taken the benefit of receptacles already prepared by nature for his nightly habitation. The fpontaneous productions of the earth, our author obferves, long furnished the inhabitants of the middle regions of the globe with food in abundance, while the natives of climates more more remote were early forced to roam over forefts and deferts, in purfuit of the means of fubfiftence. Such diversity of occupations must neceffarily have produced a variety in the manners and customs of different races of men, and have early ftamped, on different tribes and focieties, perceptible diftinctions of character. The account given by our author of the natural dispositions of man, in the following paffage, are, in our opinion, perfectly just. The difcoveries which have been inade in modern ages, have led us into an acquaintance with varieties of condition in which the human fpecies are found to exift. Mankind appear in all fituations divided into tribes, herding together, fubfifting in diftinct communities, who underftand feparate interefts. They have a fenfe of common danger: wars and diffenfions prevail among them: they appear armed for each other's detruction: their breasts are, in times of contention, filled with the most implacable animofities, which produce the most ran corous cruelties. This mode of life could not have been the original and natural state of man. There must have cxifted a period when the whole human race lived in amity together; when as yet no distinction of warlike tribes was known; when no idea of feparate interefts had found place in the human mind. While nature, without the exertion of art or industry, had furnished food fufficient to fupply the wants of the whole human species, the means of fubfiftence were enjoyed by all in common: notions of feparate interefts could not have had existence. Mankind must have lived in a ftate of general concord, until preffed by wants which they found not ready means to fupply. The existence of all the members of the community living in a body became then incompatible. Branches naturally iffued from the main flock. Thus colonies were fent forth, and the earth was peopled. Mankind affociated from a principle of natural affection towards the fpecies. Their union was rendered firm and fable, from a principle of fear and felf-prefervation.' Mr. Grant is inclined to think, in oppofition to Dr. Robertfon, that a promifcuous commerce among the fexes was one of the diftinguifhing marks of primeval fociety. But with refpect to this controverfy, fupported on one hand by the suppofition of an exclusive mutual attachment between two individuals of different fexes; and on the other, by the probability of unreftrained gratification, in a state of nature, it is impoffible to determine with certainty. In the fecond Effay, Mr. Grant does not engage in any ela borate difquifition on the origin of language, but contents himself with taking notice of fome roots, combinations, and derivations of words in a primative and ftill living language, which tend to throw fome light upon the original condition of man man, and to mark the train of his ideas in his primeval ftate of existence. The language here alluded to is the Galic, a dialect of the Celtic, which, it is contended, was anciently fpoken by the inhabitants of a great part of the globe. That the Galic is not derived from any other language, our author confiders as demonftrable, because it is obviously reducible to its own roots. Its combinations, he tells us, are formed of fimple words of known fignification; and those words are refolvable into the fimpleft combinations of vowels and confonants, and even into fimple found. He obferves, that in fuch a language, fome traces, it may be expected, will be found, of the ideas and notions of mankind living in a state of primeval fimplicity; and that this being admitted, a monument is ftill preferved of the primitive manners of the hu man race, while entirely under the guidance of nature. Mr. Grant has pursued this curious fubject with fo much ingenuity, that our readers will not think it fuperfluous when we lay before them the following extract. The vowels A, E, I, O, U, pronounced in Scotland in the fame manner as they are in Italy, are all fignificant founds with the defcendants of the Caledonians. is a found, uttered with loud vociferation, to caufe terror. E is an exclamation of joy; I, of diflike; O, of admiration; and U, of fear; alfo of grief, modified by a graver tone of voice. • Sudden fenfations of heat, cold, and bodily pain, are expreffed by articulate founds, which, however, are not used in the language to denote heat, cold, or bodily pain. Sudden fenfation of heat is denoted by an articulate exclamation, Hoit; of cold, by Id; of bodily pain, by Oich. The fimple cries are generally, if not always, followed by articulate founds; as A, Ab; E, Ed; I, lbh ; O, Obb; U, Ubb. The letters bb found like v. All these founds, both fimple and articulate, may be called interjections, being parts of fpeech which difcover the mind to be feized with fome paffion. We doubt if any of the modern improved languages of Europe prefent fo great a variety of interjections, or founds, which in utterance inftantaneously convey notice of a particular paffion, bodily or mental feeling. Although the founds, fimple and articulate, enumerated above, have not all been adopted or preferved as fignificant words, fome of them ftill remain as words or founds of marked fignification. The pronouns He and She are expreffed by the fimple founds, or vowels, E and I; and thefe ferve as regular marks of the mafculine and feminine genders. A neuter gender being unknown, every object is in a manner perfonihed in the application of thefe pronouns. Diftinctly varied founds having been once emplove! primitive man to denote the genders of living objec rally applies them to inanimate things. Language from fterility to copioufnefs by flow degrees. The intention of a word to denote a neuter gender, belongs to an improved understanding. It is probable that the To of the Greeks was not coeval with their O and H, which, like the Galic E and I, were fimple founds ufed to denote the male and female of every fpecies. Rude man is incapable of forming abftract ideas: his intellectual powers are extremely limited his reafoning faculty is applied to few objects: the rare impreffions made upon his mind are therefore ftrong: inanimate things país unnoticed: objects of motion and life catch his attention. Difpofed to taciturnity, he feldom communicates his thoughts; but when his mind is agitated by matters of important concern, defirous to paint forcibly, he exprefies himself in bold and figurative language, accompanied with bodily figns and geftures: his manner and style naturally, if not neceffarily, affume the tone of animation. He delights in imagery and personification. Hence it is, that the compofitions of rude and barbarous ages, tranfmitted to pofterity, are univerfally found to approach to the ftyle and numbers of poetry. The diftinction of two genders fufficiently fatisfies the mind of primeval man: the invention of a third gender is referved to that ftage of fociety when the understanding is much exercifed, and the imagination and genius are not fuffered to wanton in extravagance, but are reduced within the limits of precilion, correctnefs, method, and rule. The diftinction of male and female naturally claimed the earliest attention. The difference of fex was denoted by two fimple founds, which formed two diftinét words in primitive language. The vowel I, with an afpiration, fignifies to cat. The afpiration being the termination of the found, it had in the mouths of many acquired the guttural pronunciation Ich. Both I and Ich are in common ufe. From Ich came Iche, which fignines compaffion; importing, that the moft common relief from diftrefs flowed from provifion of food. It has been obierved, that E is an exclamation of joy. The fame found, with an afpiration, is ufed as a word, fignifying a cry. The fame found, terminating in the confonant D, formed the primitive word Ed, which fignifies food. Hence Ed, Edo, of the Greeks and Latins. The more we trace mankind to their primeval state, we find them the more thoughtlefs and improvident. Their fubfiftence, like that of the greater part of other animals, depends upon the acquinitions of the day. When the means of fubliltence are precarious, and not commanded with certainty, the paffion of joy and the poffeffion of, food are closely allied. Hence a found or cry expreffive of joy, came naturally to give a name to the caufe that produced it. ་ An exclamation of Ed or Eid is ufed upon discovery of ai animal of prey or game: it is meant to give notice to the hunt ing companion to be in readinefs, and prepare the means of conqueft and poffeffion. Ed is ufed in Ireland to fignify cattle. In Scotland it is preferved in many compound words. Edal, cattle, literally fignifies the offspring or generation of cattle. Edich, clothes, literally the hide or fkin of cattle. Coed or Cued, fhare or portion of any fubject of property; literally common food Faced, hunting; literally gathering of food. Edra, the time of the morning when cattle are brought home from their pasture to give milk; literally, meal time. Thefe words tend to fhew, that an etymological analysis of the words of a primitive language may be of ufe in throwing light upon the fituation and circumstances of primeval man; and may ferve to mark the progrefs of the human mind from its fimpleft to its molt enlarged conceptions in increafing fociety.' Mr. Grant obferves, that traces of the imitation of found are difcoverable in all languages; and of this, he produces We are told that fome inftances from the Galic and Greek. in the former, the word ufed for cow is Bo, which the author remarks, is plainly an imitation of the lowing of that animal. He endeavours to fupport his obfervation, likewife, by the firiking fimilitude between the cries of other animals, and the words by which they are denoted in the Galic. In particular he informs us, that the bleating of a fheep is expreffed by the word Melich, in which the vowel e is pronounced as a fiender in English, or as the Greek H, according to its pronunciation in Scotland. The following remark deduced from this fubject is worthy of notice. BH, in Greek, fignifies vex ovium balantium, the voice of bleating sheep. Hence that fpecies of animal got the name of Brza, and hence to cry aloud was expreffed by Bw. The word BH, as denoting the bleating of a sheep, affords a conclufive proof, that the found of Eta is not that of the English E, but that of the English pronunciation of A flender, which is the proper English; confequently that the Scottish pronunciation of that vowel is juft. Hence we may alfo infer, that the Greek pronunciation of alpha was that of the English open A, or the The found of the Epfilon, as proproper of the Scots. nounced in Scotland, is different from any found with which an English ear is acquainted. Ecau, boo, clamo, iguifying to low or bellow like an ox or cow, alio to cry, furnishes an another proof of the proper found of the Greek Alpha. The word being formed from an imitation of the lowing of a cow, determines the found of that vowel to have been that of the open English A. The cow and fheep being deemed among a pastoral people the most valuable animals, to whole fafety and prefervation their chief care was directed, imitation of the voices of both was naturally employed as expretive of a cry.' Amidst |