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Era dabant olim : melius nunc omen in auro est,
Victaque concedit prisca moneta novæ,-

(the fable about Juno Moneta, root, Moneo, with a Greek termination, is unworthy of serious notice), and Munus and Munera, "gifts."

Secondly, Præda, "a prey," from the Cum. Praid, plur. Preidæ.

In Owen's Dictionary we have the following explanation of Praid, "a a flock or herd; also a booty or spoil of cattle taken in war."

"Praid gyv-reithiol, pedair bu ar ügaint a Tharw," Welsh Laws. "A legal herd, twenty-four cows, and a bull." Literally in Latin order, "Præda Corritualis, Quatuor boves super viginti et Taurus.'

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In the Latin transmitted to us, we find Præda with the secondary meaning alone, acquired by the Romans at an early age, when the robber wolf was their favourite emblem, and their neighbours' flocks and herds were regarded as legitimate objects of plunder. But there are, if I am not much mistaken, some Latin words still extant, which were formed in a more Saturnian age, when Præda had not lost its proper signification of "flocks and herds." Among these are,

Prædium,
Præs,
Præditus.

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Concerning the meaning of the word Prædium, there is no doubt. All interpret it to be a "farm," or farm," or "landed property." Possessio," says Forcellini, "omnia bona complectitur, mobilia et immobilia; Prædium immobilia tantum." The Roman philologists, if we can honour them with the name, wished to derive Prædium from Præs, "a personal security," as if the first quality of landed property which would occur to a simple and early race, was the power of mortgaging it. In later times, such a confusion of ideas is perhaps possible, from the close connection between landed property and mortgages. But assuredly its liability to be mortgaged could not,

in an early age, have been the accident most likely to strike the sense, and to induce men to name land after it. What among the Sabine hills, and in a half-pastoral state, could have given a better idea of a farm than to call it from Præda, "flocks and herds," Prædium, their "grazing ground," just as we to this day call a mountain farm a sheep-walk?

From Prædium (on the same principle as from Pretium, interpres-pretis, "a broker, a price-settler between two foreign merchants") came Præs, Prædis, "the possessor of a Prædium, or of Prædia;" secondarily, " one who would give good security, heritable security as it is called in Scotland." Asconius, in his commentary on Cicero's speech against Verres, has the two following passages:-" Bona Prædia, dicuntur bona, satisdationibus obnoxia, sive sint in mancipiis sive in pecunia numerata; Prædia vero domus, agri." "Prædia sunt res ipsæ, Prædes homines, id est fidejussores, quorum res bona Prædia dicuntur;" of which this appears to be the translation :— "Bona prædia (two terms as usual in Roman law formularies, put together without a conjunction, as patres conscripti, &c.) are called the goods liable to be seized by creditors, whether they consist of saleable property or of ready money, but Prædia are house, lands." "Prædia are the things themselves; Prædes, the men who have given security, whose property is called by one name, Bona-prædia," i.e. what we call property, personal and real. Vendere Prædem was what is still called by lawyers to "sell up a man," that is, to sell all his property. In ancient times, under the cruel law of Rome, the man himself might have been liable to sale. The Roman etymologers have written much nonsense on this word, but not so much as emendators have compelled them to write. Varro says, it comes from Præsto est, which has been changed into an adverbial Præs, as if there had been any such word in the language. In taking security, no lawyer regards the mere person, or cares whether he be absent or present, if he be not rich and able to answer when pressed for the debt. Præs is therefore equivalent to "locu

1 Orat. Adver. lib. iii. 54.

ples," "full of land, rich in land." Hence "locuples reus," qui cum se obligarit, habet unde solvat, et idoneus est implendo promisso." Besides all this, had the imaginary Praes, or the real Præsto, been the root of Præs, Prædis, it would have applied with equal force to one who gave security in criminal cases, either to present himself, "se sistere," or to bring into court him for whose appearance he had become bail. But, as Forcellini properly observes, " differt præs a vade, vas enim est qui pro alio spondet in re capitali, præs qui in re nummaria.”

Præditus, "endowed or vested." This we know cannot come from Præ, and "do, to give." First, because there is no such compound; secondly, because, if it had once existed in the language, it would signify that its substantive "had been given beforehand," since datus and donatus cannot be interchanged. It appears to have been first applied to a person invested or endowed with landed property, and that it was thence metaphorically transferred to all endowments, physical and intellectual. We have now no hesitation in saying that "a man is possessed of many good qualities," because Possideo, at the period when Roman literature commenced, signified "to possess." But in older times Possessio, formed out of Pro-sedeo, signified only preoccupation, "a sitting," or, as the Americans have it, "a squatting," on ground not legally conveyed. We know what radical mistakes in Roman history occurred from a mistake in the meaning of the two words, "Possessores agrorum."

Connected with the idea of property are three other words, which are also derived from the Cumrian, these are

Idoneus,
Divitiæ,

Bonus, and Bona.

Idoneus, "proper, suitable," &c. originally applied to men of property, hence "rich, wealthy." Hear Caius (for lawyers, as I have before observed, are more retentive of the original meaning of words), "Si ab idonco debitore ad inopem trans

1 Lib. et tit. 4, Leg. 27.

110 NON-HELLENIC PORTION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.

tulerit obligationem," i.e. "ab eo debitore, qui est solvendo."1 Here Idoneus," rich," and Inops, " poor," are put in opposition to each other. So, also, in Ulpian, "Tutores et Fidejussores idonei," are twice opposed to those "qui lapsi sunt facultatibus" (ruined men). Thus, also, it changes places with Locuples, as Testis idoneus, Testis locuples, Auctor locuples, Auctor idoneus. The root of this is the Cum. Eid-ion, vulg. Eidon, “an ox," the generic name of kine, for beef is always called " cîg eidon." In the Cum. Italy is always called "Y'r eidal," close enough to identify it with Italia, derived from Italus," an ox.'

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Divitiæ seem as clearly referable to the Cum. Dav-ad, plur. Deveid, or, as the word is written in old documents, Deveit, "a sheep, and sheep." Indeed I doubt not that Davad and Devaid are compound words, made up of Dav or Dôv, "tame," and Eid, the root of Eidon, still to be found in the literary language of Ireland as the generic name for "cattle" (see Ed. and Eid. in Ed. Lloyd's Irish Dict.); and that the animals reclaimed from their wild state, and domesticated by man, bore this name, which was subsequently transferred to express the wealth of man. He who, therefore, is inclined to deny that Pecunia and Pecuniosus come from Pecus, may also refuse his assent to the inference that Divitiæ comes from Deveit. I could as easily show that Duonus, the original form of Bonus, is also of Cum. origin; but I abstain, and reluctantly close the present paper.

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Desiderata for a further prosecution of the subject:Vocabularies of the language spoken among the hills of Umbria, Rhætia, Liguria, the Maritime Alps, and Auvergne.

1 Lib. xxvii. tit. 8, Leg. 1.

THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY.

Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque animæque marisque fuissent,
Et liquidi simul ignis, ut his exordia primis,
Omnia et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis,
Tum durare solum et discludere Nerea Ponto
Cœperit. et rerum paullatim sumere formas.
Jamque novum ut terræ stupeant lucescere solem
Altius atque cadant submotis nubibus imbres,
Incipiant sylvæ cum primum surgere, cumque
Rara per ignotos errent animalia montes
Hinc lapides Pyrrhæ jactos.

VIRGIL, Eclogue vi. ver. 31.

Or all the divisions of things existent, the most simple and complete, in my opinion, is that of Plato, who, partly borrowing his system from the Pythagoreans, taught, that all things might finally be resolved into five ideas or forms:―ovie, which at present I will not attempt to represent by any English term, but which is in general rendered substance; To avto, the same, or as often called To Ev, the one, and To Tepov, the second, also called To anno, the other. The ouaia, therefore, or the To ov, was by Plato held to consist of either of these separately, or of the results of their union, or of the action of the one upon the other.

But, instead of expressing the Platonic doctrine on these points in my own words, it will be more satisfactory to the Society to hear it from the mouth of Plato's own teacher, Timaeus the Locrian, whose precious treatise, Пepi ʊxus Tou

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