curious observations might still be made respecting the words just examined, but enough has been said of them to put every body in the way of supplying here several voluntary omissions.

The figure which follows nine is 0, for which I have already many times accounted. From its having 1 understood before it, it is equal to ten, of which the meaning is, "head one." The termination ty, as, twenty, thirty, forty, &c., means also, "the head one," since it may be thus analysed, it-i (head one); and the same meaning will be also found by analysing ty thus, it-iv, which is the same as tin, and, consequently, as ten, so that twenty is, literally, twen-ten, which does not differ from twainten, that is, twice ten. We can see how ty makes, when analysed, tiv, by remembering that Y is composed of these three parts, IV. The French termination ante, as, quarante, cinquante, and which (as it is in trENTE) might as well be written ente, is also, when thus analysed, en-it, and that the it takes its place in front, iten, which, when the i is omitted, is, literally, ten. The English termination, teen, as, thirteen, fourteen, &c., means, as every body knows, "ten." But nobody has ever suspected that this word is the same as itiin, and that this is the same as itun, or tun, which is still, as it may be thus analysed, it un, "the head one," or ten.* But the

* The English measure and weight, tun or ton, must have been so named (the head one) from its being the largest of its kind; or from its having in the beginning ten times the quantity of some other weight or measure.

most hidden form of this number is, perhaps, in the French termination, ze, as in treize, quatorze, &c. But children will henceforth find it very easy to account for this ending, as they must know, from what has been seen so often, that it is equal to IS, and that IS is the same as IO, or 10.

Thus, as I have said farther back, might I continue, and still swell volumes with the Divine wisdom which has, for so many ages, lain hidden in words; but here this work, which, whilst going through the press, has increased in bulk to about double what it was when at first thought sufficiently complete, must for the present close. The reality of the discovery it contains is, notwithstanding its visionary appearance, rendered sufficiently evident to convince every intelligent and just mind in the world, that it can be no dream.

That there will, however, be found individuals who cannot, after a patient perusal of this work, believe — notwithstanding the mass of incontrovertible evidence with which it abounds—that it does really contain the extraordinary discovery to which it pretends, there cannot be the least doubt; for every body in any way acquainted with the human mind must be well aware, that there are a great many men, even men that can boast of more than considerable learning, who have been both born and bred with views so confined, as not to have the power of conceiving the existence of any great truth beyond what they have been taught all their lives to believe. Yet even such minds

will at length be brought to be thoroughly convinced of the truth of this discovery; but when? About the time every body else will have believed it for them, but no sooner. And then, perhaps, with well-feigned astonishment at the dulness, indifference, or want of penetration in others, they will see by the means of borrowed light, but by none of their own, the truth of this discovery; and they may probably stand forth amongst its warmest admirers, just as if they, and they alone, had, on the first day of its appearing before the public, entered into the spirit of it, and made known all its merits. But this belief and admiration will come too late; that is to say, when it will not be needed. As feigned intelligence is, however, to be preferred to what we understand by dogged stupidity, just as affected modesty in woman is to be preferred to a recklessness of all shame, we should not-though a dislike for every thing in the shape of hypocrisy might, on first consideration, prompt us to act otherwise-look down with too much contempt on such pretensions to knowledge, nor censure the persons in whom we detect a similar weakness for their limited powers, since this were to be as unjust as to blame our friend for the disagreeable colour of his eyes or his hair, or for his being subject to any natural infirmity from which no man is free.

But what is there to hinder any body from believing in this discovery? A great deal - the power of thinking for one's self. And how diffi

cult may it be to conceive clearly the truth of this discovery? About as difficult as to understand that one and one make double one. But this is what every body in the world can very easily believe? Yes, because every body happens to know it already; but if men could have remained ignorant of so simple a truth until now, the person making it known for the first time might not find more than one man in a hundred to believe in his discovery.

I may also assert, that he who cannot bring himself to believe in the discovery of the science of languages is born an atheist; by which I do not mean to say that he is now an atheist, or that he has the least disbelief in the existence of a God; but my meaning is, that if he had remained until now in such ignorance, he could not, for want of originality of mind, be brought to believe in this truth, than which, however, none can be more evident.

But such persons as cannot bring themselves to believe in this new science of languages, and who may treat what is here proclaimed to be such as a mere effusion of the fancy, will, by this act, bestow, unknown to themselves, greater praise upon its author than ever human being has received; for there is in this system, which, I have no doubt, is real, such wisdom as no mortal of whose labours we know any thing has ever approached, and much less equalled. How admirable that all the languages, words, and letters ever known, should be

reducible to the least point imaginable, and that this should name the Creator of all things! There is, without again considering that all words and letters, as well as this little point, do ever carry with themselves their own happy definitions, in the mere unity of this arrangement, something so extraordinarily wise, beautiful, yet simple, and so like the planning of a God, and unlike every thing of human contrivance, as to leave infinitely behind it all that man, as far as we know of him, has yet accomplished.

Now the more I reflect on this grand idea of unity, and feel convinced that there was a time when man had only one word, and that he was then in a happy state, the more do I firmly believe, when I dare to ask what language is spoken in heaven, that there, too, there can be no more than one word, but which is so wonderfully contrived, as ever to name the Divinity, and all things else besides.

Nobody can yet show all the advantages to be derived from the knowledge of this science; but they must be numerous, and of the greatest importance. To bring down men's ideas from a period so wonderfully remote as that when words were first spoken must throw such a light on the primitive state of mankind, as to enable the historian to correct many a gross error, and fill up many a blank in both the civil and religious history of the ancient world. The assistance this science will also lend in the study of languages must, even