6 After 'organic' add and inorganic,' as C and W contained the embryotic da mater cyntaf' of their living creatures, page 164; after 'importation,' read 'or' instead of 'and,' p. 184. Other errors, probably, of a similar character, may have crept in, which, of course, cannot affect the scholar and the object to be represented to the mind according to the context. I have, also, to point out the loss and intermingling of Hebrew letters in the only case or fount in use in Victoria, such as the mem for teth, and he for cheth, and so forth; but, to avert this most serious difficulty. I have associated the Cimmerian sounds of the Hebrew letters, so that any error-such, for instance, as the mem being put for he in the term zeher, at page 202—can be easily detected, and explained in others as they may occur. This anomaly will, however, be shortly remedied. "To all apparent beauties blind, I feel much pleasure, at the end of this first journey, in sincerely thanking MR. GIBBS, (of the firm of CLARSON, SHALLARD, & Co.,) for his unflagging zeal, and attention and mastery of classic readings, in getting through the Press a work of so many lingual and symbolical difficulties with such a comparative paucity of errors, independently of other serious and material drawbacks to its issue on the page of life. LECTURE I. “NATURE, enchanting Nature, in whose form "That errs not, and find raptures still renew'd, Strange that so fair a creature should yet want "Admirers, and be destined to divide "With meaner objects ev'n the few she finds.”—Cɔwper. MR. CHAIRMAN, VICE-CHAIRMAN, AND CIMBRIC FRIENDS, I want you all to migrate, in imagination, as our forefathers did in reality at one time, to the "cradled lands" of the Cimbri, whether in the Caucasian or Crimean range of hill and dale, or on the plains of Asia Minor, and the isles of the great sea; at another to the immemorial scenes of fatherland, the isles of the sea-the isles of the west, of the early Hebrews, the far west of the Greeks, and concentrate your attention on this triad of great import, Cymro, Cymry, a Chymraeg-Welshman, Wales, and the Welsh (or Cimmerian or Cimbric) language, whilst I endeavour to throw, if possible, a scattering gleam of light on a congeries of some subjects never before handled or touched upon, as far as I am aware: also, on events long antecedent to the foundation of Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, or Roman greatness; on facts and ideas drawn out of well-accredited written authorities, both Cimbric, Hebraic, Sanskrit, Egyptian, and other languages, sacred and profane, as well as out of the unlettered yet truth-speaking coins of ages, and the very stones and trees and plants of silent earth itself, with, I trust, appropriate logical deductions made therefrom; on circumstances contemporary with the early Prophets of Israel, with the poets and philosophers of Greece and Rome, and the early dawn of Christianity, and its pregnant results as regards our own race and language in its onward blessed course to us; and then endeavour to develope some of the untold inestimable realities of Bardic lore, as corroborative of external history in many divergent points, while far surpassing them in others, in the race of time and truth; and, finally, to take a rapid sketch of our immortal language in its force and pathos, as exemplified in the laws, poetry, and beliefs of the Cymry or Cimbri of by-gone ages, as well as to review other incidental matters, affecting our too long ignored national antiquity and dignity, our rights and literature, as well as our incontestable civilization, in pre-historic times. It is often asked, Who were the Cymry, Cimbri, Cimmerians? whence came they? with what branch or race of the human family were they ethnically connected? The Cymry, Cimbri, or Ancient Britons of the present day in every portion of the world, whether in Cambria, parts of England, Armorica, Australia, or America, are, by universal consent, allowed or alleged to be identically and lineally descended from Gomer, son of Japhet, as the audax Japeti genus (the daring race of Japetus), the progenitor of our race—a race, be it remembered, possessing the oldest spoken, written, or cultivated language in Europe; and which, though long anterior in its formation to that of Rome, coeval in glory with those of Palestine, Greece, and Araby the blest, and, mirabile dictu, surviving them all, has literally fulfilled the predicted reality of the aphorism, oes y byd ir iaith Gymraeg," and which again, in its unimpaired existence from on high, like the genial gales of air, where'er they do exist, goes forth in giant force, to ends of earth and time, increases more and more, till setting suns and moons and stars, shall cease to shine upon the race. The term Cymry or, more strictly speaking, Cymmry, is the plural of Cymro, and is derived from cyn (first, pristine, original), and bro (a district or region), as Morwynion bro Meinonydd. Thus Cymru, now called Wales by our English friends, becomes the radix terræ vel matrix (the root of mother earth) as it were— the autochton or native country. Its latinised form into Cambria and Cumbria of the North is traceable, in harmony with the grammatical rules or laws of the language to this root, by its well-understood commutation of the n and b in cyn, and bro into m in cym, and the m in mry. This idea of aborigines or indigenæ, as ever promulgated by the natives of Britain, prevailed also in the Crimea and Kupepia (from a similar derivative) before and after Homer, and continued down to Cæsar's time, as I learn from the following passage, "Britanniæ pars interior ab iis incolitur quos natos in insula ipsa memoria proditum dicunt: (The interior part of Britain is inhabited by such as are recorded by tradition to be originally planted there.)" Wales is derived from Taliesin's Waltia, Ond Gwyllt Wallia,' which, in its turn, came from gual (cultivated soil) and gâl (fair as a stream), which also is the root of Galatia, Gallia, Gaul, and Galles. The Saxons called the early Cymry, Wallish or Wallis; hence, by syncope, it became, by an easy transition, the Walsh or Welsh of the subsequent Danes and Normans. The Saxons, also, from their correct knowledge of the people they came to succour and deceive, must have concluded, from the brotherly ties of alliance and creed, as well as from the identity of language, peculiar to the Gallic Armoricans and the Cymry, that the original natives of the island were of common extraction with their continental neighbours. Albion is derived from albus, on account of the white cliffs visible to navigators on the south side of the island. Whence came the name of Britannia, Gwlad yr hen Frydaniaid' (Land of the ancient Britons). "Nostra deducta Britannia mundo." "Britannia from our world withdrawn." Before the island received its now world-wide name, it was mysteriously called 'Isles of the sea,' 'Isles of the west,' the Island which is in the sea'; the 'Ews Toν Zepuρov' (The far west); the 'Zopos nepoels' (House of darkness, or the extreme west of the Hyperboreans); and 'Boreas under the Great Bear' (Gelidi prope flabra aquilonis). I meet the term Britannia under various primitive forms, as Вperavia, BpεTavin vnoos (Britannia, British Isles); and, in Aristides, by way of eminence, n μɛyaλn vnoos (The great island). Procopius calls it Βριτια. The same form or root is also discernible in the following distich ex Sibyllæ oraculis :— “ Έσσεται εν Βρυτεσσι, και εν Γαλλοις πολυκρυσοις "On Britain and the golden coast of Gaul Dionysius Afer speaks of the group as Isles incomparable: "Ταων το μεγεθος περιώσιον, ου και τις αλλη 66 Νήσοις εν πασησιν Βρετανισιν ισοφαρίζει.” "Such is their circumference, no other isles What is the meaning, then, of the final trisyllable in the term Britannia? The ravia (tania) in such words as Mauritania, Sequitania, according to ancient glossaries, signifies, in old Greek, a country. The prefix now remains. It has occupied the searching investigation of our oldest Cimbric etymologists. According to some, the term can be solvable into no other, than to Brython of Llydaw or Armorica, or to Brut, Britis, or Brutus, of Troy, two illustrious pre-historical colonists of Asia Minor. According to others, not well versed in the correct history of their race, it refers to the epithet Brith, painted or variegated, in allusion probably, to the Volusenian concoction, and the consequent Caesarean legend, attributing to the whole nation, what was practised only by a few gymnasts, who daubed their frames with vitrum, woad, or other coloured unguents preparatory to their exhibition on the arena; which custom was, is, and probably will be, the practice of Europe generally, till histories shall be no more. This fanciful 'painted' interpretation was never even slightly, much less seriously, entertained, by any philologist possessing a grain of 'rationale,' in corpore sano: this exploded change has long vented itself in thin air, and is totally unworthy of any future repercussion. For my part, I am disposed to rely on the druidical records of my country, rather than on the terrified imagination of a reconnoiterer, or on the speculative idealities of a crude and credulous posterity, relying on the 'fallacia mendacia' of a former period, to ooze out their impotent dignity. This antique term, then, according to the triad, is derived distinctly from Prydain ab Aedd Mawr' (Prydain, son of Aedd the Great). “Tri enw a ddoded ar ynys Prydain o'r dechreuad. Cyn ei chyfanneddu y doded arni Clas Merddin; a gwedi ei chyfanneddu arni, Y Fel Ynys; a gyrru gwledigaeth arni gan Prydain ab Aedd Mawr, y doded arny ynys Prydain. (Three names were given to the Isle of Britain from the beginning; before it was inhabited, Clas Merddin was the name given; and after it was inhabited, that of Fel Ynys, [the honey island]; and when the country assumed a form of government by Prydain, the son of Aedd the Great, the name of Ynys Prydain was conferred upon it "). A partial interregnum of name, however, occurred on the arrival and occupation of certain parts of the island by Fryt, when the country for a while assumed the ephemeral dignity of Ynys Brut, according to a rider attached as it were to a clause of the triad. "Ag wedy ei goresgyn o Vryt y dodes arni Ynys Brut, (And when overcome by Vryt, the name of Ynys Brut was imposed upon it.)" Post mortem extemplo mutavit nomina tempus. The root of Prydain is discovered in the epithet Pryd, which, according to philological interpretation, signifies precious, dear, fair, or beautiful, and was at a very early date, accepted as a surname in the British royal family of the island. Perhaps it would not be considered out of place to give you a list of the fanciful, and ingenious interpretations of mankind, respecting our Ynys Prydain, as Pryd-cain, a fair aspect; Bri-ton, above the sea, of the Cyniry; Braidin, the extensive land of the Irish; Brutus, of the Romans and Asiatics; Brython, a warrior from Gaul; Berith-tan, separate land of the Hebrews; and, finally, Barat-anac, land of tin or alcan of the Phoenicians. All these attempted derivations are, en passant, however, of |