Class/ 
 
 Book «J 
 
/^ /Y/KfJ^f^ 'oa 
 
 
 n 
 
 ALPHABET ^l 
 
 PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE OF SPAIN, 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL EXAMINATION OF THE ANTIQUITY AND 
 CIVILIZATION OF THE BASQUE PEOPLE : 
 
 AN EXTRACT FROM THE 
 
 WORKS OF DON JUAN BAUTISTA DE ERRO. 
 
 •1 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 PRESS OF ISAAC R. BUTTS. 
 
 ' 1829. 
 
 i 
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• ;■■:>'■'' i 
 
 W>0 
 
 07b 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE, 
 
 A personal acquaintance with Mr Erro during my late 
 residence in Spain, (from 1816 to 1819) and admiration of his 
 extraordinary genius, first induced me to examine with attention 
 those of his literary labors from which the following pages are 
 an " extract ;" the impressions in favor of his opinions as to 
 the antiqueness of the basque language which I at that time 
 received, were very much confirmed, when afterwards (in 
 1S21) I found him in Paris applying his system with success, 
 to the explanation of the legends on various Etruscan monu- 
 ments existing in the French national library ; these having 
 baffled all the ingenuity of the antiquaries and philologists, had 
 long since been abandoned ; as wholly inexplicable : from this 
 highly interesting occupation Mr Erro was called away by the 
 political revolution in his country ; having returned to Spain and 
 entered into the councils of his king, he has left incomplete a 
 work, which had it been pursued by his powerful and philo- 
 sophic intellect, and with his indefatigable industry and research, 
 could not but have produced the most satisfactory results, and 
 have established his own reputation amongst the most illustrious 
 in the republic of letters. From the period here referred to, 
 Mr Erro having continued to be an influential member of the 
 Spanish administration, his political character has become 
 " European" and has partaken of the universal abhorrence 
 excited by that course of vindictive persecution which has fol- 
 lowed the "restoration;" though this fact cannot diminish his 
 authority as a man of erudition, yet possibly in certain points of 
 
view, it may tend to predispose some of his American readers 
 to receive his philosophical opinions with disfavor or distrust ; 
 it may not therefore be deemed improper for me in this place 
 to offer bis apology founded on an intimate personal acquaint- 
 ance. Mr Erro is a philanthropist in the most comprehensive 
 sense of that term, and his temper is singularly liberal, mild, 
 and conciliatory ; in whatever degree he may have manifested 
 condescension to the royal power, it is certain that he has not 
 had any direct agency in its excesses ; indeed his department 
 has been almost if not altogether, exclusively that of finance ; 
 nor in strict justice ought the reactions referred to be attributed 
 to any portion of the king's ministry, or to his cabinet collect- 
 ively, or even to Ferdinand's own temper and policy ; they 
 are, in a greater or lesser degree, the indefectible results of all 
 " restorations." If then Mr Erro, amongst others the most dis- 
 tinguished of his fellow-subjects, has lent his aid to the restora- 
 tion of the royal authority in Spain, we must presume that he 
 has acted on a more intimate knowledge of his country, the 
 character of its inhabitants, and of their incapacity to receive 
 and maintain republican institutions, than we can pretend to ; 
 and if his judgment on this point has been proved to have been 
 correct, then certainly he will be excused, if tempted by per- 
 sonal considerations, he has not rejected the honors which have 
 been offered to him ; he is not the first who has sacrificed 
 the pursuits of philosophy to those of ambition, nor will he be 
 the last probably. It may well happen also, that exceptions 
 will be taken to some portions, or to some of the forms of my 
 author's argument where it necessarily rests on, or is connected 
 with, the Mosaic history ; the matter might certainly have been 
 treated independent of that authority, and probably with at least 
 equal effect; but Mr Erro is a catholic; that fact apart, lie is 
 not a solitary example of a philosopher modifying his principles, 
 and accommodating his system, whether from fear or benevo- 
 lence, so as to avoid offence to received doctrines, or shocking 
 prevailing prejudices : independent of all such considerations, 
 
it is evident that in countries where priests rule, all philosophical 
 and metaphysical discussion must have an orthodox basis to 
 entitle it to a passport from the church, without this it cannot 
 proceed : Mr Erro wrote in a country where there was an 
 inquisition, with an imprimatur, a double headed monster, 
 who keeps incessant watch at the portal of the intellectual 
 elysium. 
 
 I have thought that some account of the system of this learned 
 philologist, might be acceptable in the United States, where 
 certainly the philosophy of language is cultivated by men of as 
 high qualification in that most important department of^cience, 
 as are any to be found in Europe : — to these then I present the 
 following extracts from the principal works of Mr Erro, — viz : 
 " Alfabeto de la lengua primitiva" and " El mundo primitivo" 
 a work not yet completed. I abridge also very considerably of 
 the argument in some of the portions extracted, for reasons 
 which it is proper here to explain. — As my author had to sup- 
 port doctrines entirely new, against general and deep-rooted 
 prejudices, and all classical authority, and to meet an opposition 
 neither feeble nor liberal from several cotemporary writers of 
 no mean capacity,* he was obliged to labor his subject, — to 
 
 * As a specimen of this polemic illiberally, I may particularize an opinion 
 given by Mr Lecluse, undoubtedly a very learned man, since he is professor 
 of Hebrew and Greek literature at Toulouse in France : — this gentleman who 
 has constructed a grammar of the basque language, attempts by a few flippant 
 phrases to set aside all the pretensions of Larramendi, Astarloa, Erro, and 
 other learned Basques, — and not only denies that their language has an alpha- 
 bet now, but doubts whether it ever had an alphabet ; these are his words, 
 " le fait est que cette langue n'a point oV alphabet, du moins que lui soit 
 ptopre. , II est possible qu'clie en ait eu, tela mem c est tres croyable, si il 
 est vrai que la basque ait ete la langue univeraelle de V antique Iberie ;" 
 it does not appear how the probability that the basque language had an alpha- 
 bet formerly, is affected by the question whether or not it was the idiom used 
 throughout the peninsula at any given epoch ; and on the supposition that it 
 had an alphabet because it was the " universal language of Iberia " Mr 
 Lecluse should have offered to us at least a conjecture, aa to how its alphabet 
 could have been lost, since the very fact that the language was universal, 
 the only ground on which he will admit the supposition that it had an alpha- 
 bet, augments the probability that the same alphabet would have been pre- 
 served. It is indeed most extraordinary that Mr Lecluse, even whilst 
 speaking of Mr Erro's u alfabeto de la lengua primitiva" should venture to 
 make problematical a fact which is so indisputably proved by that very work ; 
 materially proved by fac-similies of fifty coins, all with basque inscriptions 
 
VI 
 
 insist on a variety of subsidiary matter with an exuberance of 
 reasoning, which were fatiguing to readers in general, — which 
 is not essential to my limited purpose, — and which I have the 
 less repugnance in curtailing, since all opposition to him has 
 ceased. — Proposing then to give merely a general view, or an 
 outline of his system, with as much only of his reasoning and 
 proof as is indispensable to the full understanding of it, I have 
 omitted of the first work all that relates to the ancient religion 
 of Spain, — to the invention of coining, and other matters curious 
 and interesting, but not essential to my purpose ; — as also the 
 application of the alphabet to the explanation of the inscriptions 
 on coins and other monuments of high antiquity found in the 
 basque provinces ; I could not have made any useful selection 
 from that part of the work, which would not have required basque 
 types. In extracting from the second work I have taken still 
 greater liberty with the author, for as the reader will observe, 
 his principal thesis so bold and entirely original, yet free from 
 all dogmatism, must needs have required for its support a variety 
 and profusion of discussion which admits of much abridgment ; 
 I have curtailed also the elucidations of it in its application to 
 ancient geography and the origin of legislation, and thus con- 
 cluded my extract with the explanation of the numeral system, 
 abridging however very considerably the author's developments 
 of the Pythagorean philosophy derived from that system, by 
 omitting the greater part of those absurdities and metaphysical 
 illusions disgusting to readers in general, and which at this day 
 are held in no great respect even by metaphysicians; yet I have 
 inserted as much of this as appeared essential to the proof, that 
 the power attributed to numbers by Pythagoras, and after him 
 by Plato, had its origin in an imperfect tradition of the primi- 
 tive philosophy. Though I must allow that the fatigue of 
 
 in basque loiters, besides the vase of Castulo, the famous stone ofSaguntum, 
 the earthen jar of Trigueros, (Ik; .stone of Clnnia, and other similar monu- 
 ments, all having basque legends; hence we* are forced lo conclude that Mr 
 Lecluse never saw Erro'a hook, one half at least of which is occupied by the 
 most complete and satisfactory explanation of those legends. 
 
Vll 
 
 translating abstruse metaphysical conceptions, (after having suc- 
 ceeded in penetrating their obscurity) so as to give to them the 
 best form of which they are susceptible in another language, has 
 in some passages rather encouraged this disposition to abridge, 
 yet I think that I might have carried it further without prejudice 
 to the main argument of the author. I will not boast (as is the 
 common practice) of the " fidelity," or " special care" which 
 has been employed in this translation ; of its accuracy those 
 who have an opportunity of consulting the original works will 
 judge for themselves ; but it is incumbent on me to assure the 
 general reader, that though I have translated freely and hastily, 
 I have not perverted the sense of the author ; I trust indeed, 
 that by lopping off some redundancies of the argument, I may 
 have made it more acceptable : withal I am aware that there 
 may be still found in Mr Erro's reasoning, positions not per- 
 fectly clear and satisfactory under a severe examination ; yet 
 after rejecting all that the most fastidious criticism can take 
 exception to, there will yet remain I trust, more especially in 
 his analysis of the letters, sufficient of solid incontrovertible 
 proof of the principal fact to be established by the " Alfabeto," 
 viz : that the Greek alphabet has been taken from the Euscaran, 
 and not from the Phcenecian, as has hitherto been generally 
 believed on the authority of the ancient writers :* the precise 
 
 * Ancient history, so called, is full of confusions, where it is not fabulous ; 
 how little reliance then can be placed on its authority groping in the darkness 
 of the primitive ages. Herodotus, called the " father of history," is the first 
 authority for this story of Cadmus, but he speaks of an epoch a thousand 
 years before his own time, when the Greeks were in a state of barbarism. 
 Lecluse the French author before mentioned, after telling us that the Phcene- 
 cian language was a dialect of the Hebrew, and showing that the Greek 
 alphabet is no other than the Hebrew, falls into the common tract of authority 
 as to the story of Cadmus, though as he at the same time explains " Cadim" 
 in Hebrew to signify the East, and " Cadmoni" oriental, he leads to a very 
 natural presumption that the expedition of Cadmus was but an allegory. 
 The leader will observe that Mr Erro has not availed himself of these 
 etymologies, as in a certain view he might have done with advantage to his 
 argument; he has reasoned on the less favorable supposition, that the Phce- 
 ne.-ian prince did exist; possibly from submission to that sort of conventional 
 authority belonging to the Grecian and Roman authors, which men of a 
 " classical education" are the last to question : herein is a principal disad- 
 vantage of a classical education, the blind veneration which it produces for 
 all the absurdities of antiquity; wholly authoritative, it dispenses with the 
 
Vlll 
 
 period in which the Euscaran alphabet was formed is not 
 equally evident ; its anteriority to the Phoenecian or Hebrew 
 does not, nor does even its philosophical construction, wholly 
 settle this point ; yet as we are without any history or tradition 
 which can enable us to approach by reasonable conjecture the 
 period of its invention, Mr Erro's reasoning with a view to this 
 object is admissible in its full extent. It is only by deciphering 
 the legends and hieroglyphics on ancient monuments, that we can 
 attain the least acquaintance with events anterior to history ; the 
 author's method is no other than this ; by his examination of the 
 coins, vases, &tc. found in the basque provinces, it is proved beyond 
 the possibility of doubt, that the first settlers of that country had 
 an alphabet ; its high antiquity is proved by an analysis of its 
 letters ; its origin, or in other words the invention of the art of 
 writing, is most reasonably inferred to have preceded by many 
 ages the first settlement of Spain ; was it coeval with the forma- 
 tion of the language ? this question is comprised in the argu- 
 ment on the antiqueness of that language : the purpose of Mr 
 Erro's second work (El Mundo primitivo) is to prove the Eus- 
 caran to have been antideluvian ; if that language existed at 
 the time of the dispersion it was doubtless the language of 
 Noah; then still following as authority the Mosaic narration, it 
 must have been the language of Adam ; and then its philosophi- 
 cal perfection abundantly suffices to prove that it was infused, or 
 given to the first man simultaneously with his being. Whatever 
 may be thought of this argument, it must be allowed that the 
 author's method is highly ingenious, and his reasoning very forci- 
 
 useof the reasoning faculty in matters of history, thus disqualifying its disci- 
 ples for the discovery of truths, and too frequently rendering them inimical to 
 the discoveries of others ; this same classic devotion is one cause of the sec- 
 ondary or insufficient attention given to the mathematics, which ought to be 
 the corner stone, the very basis of all education. Amongst the many errors in 
 history corrected by etymology, is that which from a similarity in the sound 
 of names makes the Iberians to be descendants from the Hebrews, into 
 which nation Mr Lecluse (as professor of Hebrew doubtless) seems disposed 
 to dissolve all others; the two names had a common origin probably, but 
 that only because the nations who first had fixed residences call^all the others, 
 still migratory," Iberi," wanderers; such were the Jews before their entry 
 into Europe, such probably the Euscaldunes before their entry into Spain. 
 
 / 
 
IX 
 
 ble ; his analysis of the basque numeration, on a mistaken concep- 
 tion of which it is made perfectly evident that the Pythagorean 
 philosophy was founded, gives to his system a basis of such solidity, 
 as must command the respect even of scepticism. This system 
 admitted, surely no philosophic speculation can excite so high 
 an interest, for (in the author's words) " it opens a communica- 
 tion, and forms a link of connexion with the primeval ages ;" 
 it supplies the only means of any acquaintance with the state 
 of civilization in the commencement of human society; for 
 though it be allowed that the Mosaic Genesis is authority be- 
 cause it was inspired, and in this view it is necessarily con- 
 sidered by Mr Erro, yet this contains but a succinct account 
 of the creation, and a rapid sketch of the growth of society, 
 (all comprised within six chapters) but teaches nothing as to its 
 intellectual progress or acquirements previous to the deluge. 
 
 *The deluge is a fact, not depending on history, inspired or 
 Uninspired, and not because found in the traditions of all nations, 
 but the material physical proofs of which are visible in its relics 
 dispersed over the whole globe : — we know also without the aid 
 of history or tradition, and notwithstanding whatever may have 
 been taught to the contrary, what must have been the moral 
 results of that catastrophe ; that it must have laid waste all the 
 works of man, all that had been accumulated by his genius, 
 as by his labor, reducing him to the state of a miserable 
 wanderer on the face of a devastated earth scarcely supplying 
 him with the means of continuing his wretched existence ; wholly 
 occupied with his physical sufferings and wants, his intellectual 
 condition was but little superior to that of the brute creation ; 
 from that state of degradation he could not have emerged but 
 by very slow degrees through a long course of ages; nay, when 
 we observe the different degrees of civilization now existing 
 
 * There may have heen many universal deluges, according to the opinion 
 of Cuvier and other geologists' reasoning on fossil remains ; — I refer in this 
 place only to those ruins which we find on the surface of the earth, or in its 
 upper strata. These, it is evident, are of the last deluge ; the only one in 
 which our species was concerned, as they suppose. 
 
amongst the different societies which inhabit the earth, perhaps 
 it were not unreasonable to conclude, that herein also the effects 
 of the deluge are still apparent ; — how otherwise account for 
 such wide distinctions in the condition of man who by the con- 
 stitution of nature is everywhere physically and morally the same 
 being.* 
 
 By the deluge then, and by the dark ages which followed it, 
 we have hitherto been shut out from all means of acquiring any 
 acquaintance with the intellectual condition of the first societies; 
 Mr Erro's system passing through this night of time, mounts up 
 to its very dawn, and there he finds the origin of his language 
 in the transcendant perfection of its construction : — admitting 
 his analytical expositions, we arrive necessarily at one of these 
 two conclusions, — either that this perfect idiom together with 
 the science embraced by it, was infused by the Creator, — or 
 that the intellectual power of the first societies of men was infi- 
 nitely superior to that in any period known to history, — which 
 were in effect to suppose the primeval man to have had a less 
 defective organization than that which belongs to the species at 
 this time. 
 
 Certainly, if the Mosaic account of the creation is correct, and 
 this the author supposes, he could not offer a stronger argu-ment 
 in favor of his opinion — no other is wanting than this ; God 
 ordered Adam to give suitable names to all the animals ; this sup- 
 poses in Adam a previous and perfect acquaintance with nature. 
 But the relation of Moses apart, the argument in favor of Mr 
 Erro's opinions furnished by the philosophical perfection of 
 the language which he examines, seems to be of sufficient force, 
 — for it is the only language of such a character : — all the idioms 
 now in use, though centuries have been employed in the im- 
 provement of them, are full of imperfections, — how then can it 
 
 * This same consideration would seem to authorize an opinion, notwith- 
 standing the theories of the geologists, that our race has suffered by more 
 than one deluge ; that the deluges have been partial and not universal ; and 
 that amongst the last of these vast commotions, may have been one on this 
 continent. I have somewhere seen a conjecture that our chain of lakes are 
 but the remains of a flood. 
 
XI 
 
 be supposed that man in his infancy was able to form a perfect 
 language ! for those who adopt the Jewish chronology this the 
 author's argument is slill more positive, for according to that 
 computation, from the creation to the deluge was a period of 
 only sixteen hundred years ; too short a period certainly for 
 such a wonderful intellectual progress as the formation of a 
 perfect language supposes j and this is still more evident when 
 we consider what was the state of science at the coming of 
 Christ, 2384 years after the deluge ; and even what it is at this 
 time 1900 years later ; this last period too including nearly 400 
 years of a progress unexampled in rapidity. If the high anti- 
 quity of the basque language is satisfactorily proved by its phi- 
 losophical perfection, then, as it is impossible to admit the sup- 
 position of its having been formed by the geuius of man, we 
 cannot altogether withhold our assent to Mr Erro's conclusion ; — 
 and surely there is not anything shocking to our reason in the 
 proposition : — there must have been an existence before man 
 existed, — the cause of his existence ; — man then was created ; — 
 he is evidently the most perfect work (the combination of moral 
 and physical faculties considered) of the whole creation ; — it is 
 evident also that he was made social, consequently must have 
 been created in society ; a language then must have been an 
 ingredient in his constitution, a language corresponding in the 
 perfection of its structure with the other attributes of his nature, 
 and in harmony with the other creations of the first cause. 
 
 The author's assertion, that no language with which we are 
 acquainted has been formed like the Euscaran of natural ele- 
 ments, cannot be disputed ; thus we see that no living language 
 is fixed, all are more or less conventional, and subjected to per- 
 petual alterations ; this is so true, that the idioms of the nations 
 most advanced in civilization, now so much vary from what they 
 were some few centuries ago, as to be scarcely cognizable in 
 the early writers ; and some of our own writers, even of a com- 
 paratively late date, cannot be understood without a glossary. 
 This multiplicity of imperfect and ever varying languages, has 
 
Xll 
 
 been used in argument against Mr Erro's system ; but the fact 
 when duly considered, ought rather to operate in his favor ; for 
 firstly we are able to trace by etymology the derivation of some 
 from others of these languages, and secondly because in most 
 of them have been discovered some radical characteristics which 
 countenance the opinion that they all had a common origin ; — 
 and again, it were absurd to suppose that man when created 
 was gifted with many languages, whilst nothing is more reason- 
 able than to conclude that the Creator gave to him one language 
 adequate to all his purposes : — the deluge and its necessary 
 effects will account very satisfactorily for the loss of that primi- 
 tive language, and for the formation of other idioms ; the remains 
 of a primitive language found in these, at the same time that it 
 proves them to be derivative, authorizes the search after, be- 
 cause it affords a possibility of discovering the primitive entire. 
 And again, as to the probability that language was infused, is it 
 not strengthened when we consider the imperfections of all the 
 languages which have been formed by man subsequent to the 
 deluge, — it would appear then that the formation of a perfect 
 language is beyond the faculty of man. It will not be denied 
 but that a fixed order and rule of action was given in the crea- 
 tion to all its elements, in man as well as throughout nature,— 
 in other words that the creation was complete ; can language 
 an essential principle in the nature of man have been made an 
 exception ? 
 
 It is a gloomy and wretchedly hopeless doctrine which some 
 philosophers have founded on an observation of what is com- 
 monly called the " savage state ," assimilating our species to that 
 of the brute ; — teaching that we are distinguished from it only 
 by the faculty of cultivating our intellect, and that all the advan- 
 tages which we possess over the brutes have resulted merely 
 from the long continued exercise of that faculty. — Surely no 
 proposition is more incontestible than this, that man is the most 
 perfect work of the animated creation ; it is impossible then to 
 
Xlll 
 
 admit the supposition that society commenced in the " savage 
 state," for this is not having a defined limit, the hypothesis if 
 admitted would carry us back to a condition infinitely inferior 
 to that of the lowest species of the brute creation ; — if then we 
 find in some regions tribes of savages in a state of physical misery 
 and destitution, or of intellectual ineptitude or imbecility, render- 
 ing them in all respects inferior to the brute creation, we must 
 consider such a state to be a degradation, however produced, 
 from a " state of nature" the state in which the Creator origin- 
 ally placed our species. Is it not then perfectly philosophic, 
 to consider the " savage state " as a consequence of the deluge ; 
 and is it not equally philosophic as we'l as consolatory, to con- 
 clude that man, so superior to all other animals in his organiza- 
 tion, was created in the full and complete exercise and enjoy- 
 ment of all his faculties physical and moral ; on this plan all the 
 inferior animals have been made, why not man the most perfect ; 
 can it be supposed that he was cast forth into the world to im- 
 prove his intellect, or to perish in ignorance as chance might 
 direct 3 and without even the instinct of the brute to supply the 
 place of the knowledge which was withheld from him, and 
 which though indispensable to his well being, he could not ac- 
 quire but after a painful existence through many generations. 
 
 The " savage state" then is not a " state of nature," but an 
 accident; the learned researches of our American philologists 
 have made it evident that the remote ancestry of our Indian 
 tribes have been a "civilized" people; it is presumable that 
 similar success may hereafter result from similar investigations 
 of the languages used by the still more barbarous tribes of Asia 
 and Africa. 
 
 Mr Morenas a learned orientalist, (of France) treating this 
 subject (in the Revue Encyclopedique) cites the authority of 
 professor Vater, to prove that our Indian idioms have a great 
 analogy with the " tchusktschi " in Asia, ivith the Congo in 
 Africa, and with the basque in Europe ; this analogy is in what 
 
XIV 
 
 are considered as Hebrew roots.* Lord Montboddo (on lan- 
 guage) mentions a dictionary and grammar of the language of 
 the Garani a people of Paraguay, this was made by a Jesuit 
 and published in Madrid (1639.) it shows that the language of 
 the Garani is as regularly constructed as any European language, 
 and that in many respects it is superior to all of them ; amongst 
 its excellences is a first person plural inclusive, that is, which 
 includes the speaker and the person spoken to ; as also another 
 exclusive, or excluding the person spoken toj- : Lord M. observes, 
 " / think it impossible that they who have made so little progress 
 in the other arts of life should have invented so complete a lan- 
 guage :" he makes a similar remark on the language of the 
 Algonquins, a language of a most curious and scientific con- 
 struction he says ; there have been strange migrations and mix- 
 tures of nations at different periods, and indeed there is hardly 
 any thing that we can conceive to be possible that has not hap- 
 pened in a long course of time ; this is an observation of Hero- 
 dotus. The same Lord Montboddo speaking of the Celtic 
 language observes, " it is spread over a great part of the world 
 and is to be found in places so remote from each other, as to 
 show that there must have been a most extraordinary intercourse 
 and communication amongst men in ancient times." He then 
 goes on to state a highly interesting fact reported to him by a 
 certain learned French Jesuit ; one of the priests of the mis- 
 sion to which that Jesuit was attached, having lost his way in 
 the woods, strayed into the country of the Esquimaux, and 
 
 *Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation," speaking of the Hebrew 
 letters, observes, that they are the only signs which have significant names; 
 hence he infers that they are the most ancient ; — this same characteristic in 
 the basque letters (from which the Hebrew were derived) is the basis of Mr 
 Erro's system. 
 
 *'/L»W3^ t By the late investigations of our American philologists, it is found that a 
 
 plural in this form, and also a dual, are general characteristics of the Indian 
 languages of this continent; as they are in all (he languages of the South 
 sea inlanders. In the Cherokee language many other peculiarities are to be 
 observed, and some excellences which fully entitle it to partake with the 
 Garani of Lord Montboddo's encomium ; amongst the most remarkable of 
 these excellences, is the division of nouns into two classes, one applying to 
 animate, and the other to inanimate objects. 
 
 
XV 
 
 there resided long enough to learn their language ; he then left 
 them and returned to the French settlement ; sometime after- 
 wards, happening to go on board a ship of his nation, he met 
 with a basque sailor with whom he entered into conversation, 
 and he found to his great astonishment, that he was able to un- 
 derstand the sailor's basque, and that the sailor understood 
 equally well his Esquimaux language; from this the priest in- 
 ferred that the basque was a dialect of the Celtic language ; if 
 the exact truth in this narrative is merely that the two languages 
 were found to have many words in common, this is a fact of 
 sufficient importance in the argument. 
 
 I have been induced to dwell on this opinion, that what is 
 called " the savage state" is a consequence of the deluge, and 
 not " the state of nature," more than would seem to be proper 
 in a preface, by an earnest desire to bespeak all the reader's 
 attention to the reasoning of Mr Erro as far as it affects this 
 point ; and to predispose his mind to receive with favor a sys- 
 tem, the principal beauty of which, (in my view) is, that it 
 goes to prove the proper " state of nature ," to have been a 
 state of civilization, and of the highest intellectual cultivation of 
 which our species is susceptible. " Fixing our view (says the 
 author in his prologue) by means of the Euscaran language on 
 ages anterior to the deluge, w 7 e shall observe that the doctrine of 
 universal motion is not a discovery ^Egyptian or Babylonian ; 
 we shall see a system unknown to the moderns, a beautiful sim- 
 ple system, embracing by the same laws the movement of the 
 heavenly bodies, and the vegetation of the most humble plants; 
 comprehending under a few general causes the entire empire of 
 nature, wholly free from the absurdity of our methods, in which 
 the multitude of rules constantly imagined to explain her ope- 
 rations, prove only how far we have deviated from the simple 
 principles by which she preserves the universe. We shall see 
 that long before the existence of Copernican philosophers, the 
 first societies knew that the sun was fixed in the centre of the 
 universe ; that it was neither Hippocrates, nor Harvey, who dis- 
 
XVI 
 
 covered the circulation of the blood ; that in the doctrine of 
 generation principles were admitted, which even to this day our 
 physical science is unacquainted with ; that the year was regu- 
 lated to 3G5 clays calculating from the winter solstice ; that be- 
 fore there were iElgpytians, the Zodiac was invented ; and that 
 before such persons as Pythagoras and Plato were known, the 
 harmony of numbers, and the order and proportion in which 
 they stood in the plan of nature by the disposal of the Supreme 
 Creator, were perfectly understood." 
 
 It will not escape the reader's observation, that the author's 
 philosophical investigations have been restricted by considera- 
 tions belonging to a respect for sacred history, and that his ar- 
 gument so limited, is at times somewhat controled by the 
 Mosaic relation : it is evident that his system if developed toils 
 utmost extent, might endanger a great many opinions which are 
 now fixed, and considered to be salutary ; a perfect language ex- 
 isting at the creation, must have been the language of the Crea- 
 tor, and therefore have contained all truth ; a complete analysis 
 which should expose those truths, would necessarily destroy by 
 its paramount authority all the systems of man's invention. Be 
 this as it may, it is fit that on this delicate point we should 
 receive the author's own explanation of his reserve, and admit 
 as sufficient the reasons which he has assigned for the bounds 
 given to his discussions. 
 
 " As regards the proofs in the argument of this work, (says 
 he) though I might have carried to as great a degree of certi- 
 tude the examination of other sciences not herein alluded to, I 
 have rather chosen as evidence of the antiquity and superior 
 excellence of the basque language overall the languages of the 
 earth, such matter, as at the same time that it suffices for my 
 purpose, serves to confirm the great plan of our august religion, 
 and the relation of the first events of the world as left to us by 
 the sacred historian Moses ; thus dissipating those ridiculous 
 and fabulous pretensions of some extravagant and unreflecting 
 authors, who in these modern times have attempted to confound 
 
XV11 
 
 and obscure our worship, and at the same time manifesting the 
 true origin of the ancient cosmogonies and theogonies, and of 
 the mystery of the holy fables of the gentiles to which so much 
 importance has been attached as a means of assailing religion ; 
 as though the indestructable foundations of that august work 
 could depend on the chimeras and extravagances of human 
 reason." 
 
 Some modern author has said "the construction of language 
 is in itself the history of the people to whom it belongs :" cer- 
 tain it is that analysis in language is the only means by which 
 we can acquire any knowledge of ages unknown to history ; 
 hence the immense importance of philological investigation* : 
 in that persuasion, and observing the growing taste in the United 
 States for this branch of philosophy; under the encouragement 
 also of a distinguished scholar, whose labors have principally 
 contributed to its advancement, I submit to the learned in a 
 succinct form, the claims of the basque to be considered as the 
 primitive language of the human race, the only perfect language; 
 or in the author's words, " a faithful copy of nature ; an irresist- 
 ible witness to the most remote events, and an archive of the 
 precious acquirements of the first ages." 
 
 GEORGE W. ERVING. 
 
 Boston, July 15, 1829. 
 
 * Doctor Murray in his " History of European Languages," well observes, 
 that the " advantages which have accrued to history, religion, the philosophy 
 of the mind, and the progress of society, the benefits which have resulted 
 from the Greek and Roman taste, in short, all that a knowledge of the pro- 
 gress and attainments of man in past ages canbestoiv on the present, has 
 reached it through the medium of philology. 
 
JVOTE 
 
 OF 
 
 AUTHORS IN THE BASQUE LANGUAGE. 
 
 The greater part of the writers in the basque language are men- 
 tioned by Mr Erro ; (Part I, chap, i and v,) viz: — Don Luis Velasquez, 
 Don Juan Francisco Andres, the Jesuit Rajas, Don Francisco de La 
 Huerta, the Jesuits Larramendi and Torreros, Luis Carlos Zuniga, 
 Boyer, and Don Pablo Pedro de Astarloa. 
 
 Besides these I cannot find that there have been more than four 
 authors of any reputation ; i. e. D'lharce, Harriet, Etcheberri, and 
 Izluela. 
 
 Those who have written more especially on the excellences of the 
 basque language, are, (besides Erro,) Larramendi, Astarloa, and 
 D'lharce ; Larramendi also published a dictionary in 1745 ; another 
 dictionary was made by Etcheberri ; Izluela printed at St Sebastians 
 in 1824 a very curious work on .the ancient usages, dances, games, 
 &c, of Guipuscoa, with this title ; " Guipuscoaco dantza gogoangarien 
 condaira, edo istoria beren sonu zar, eta itz neurto edo versoaquin." 
 
 Larramendi in his time knew but of ten books printed in pure basque, 
 and all of them were on religious matters, viz :-^-Two Catechisms, 
 published in 1733; Imitation of Jesus Christ, in 1720; Hymns, 1630; 
 Manual of Devotion; Spiritual Exercises; Sermons by Pedro Argana- 
 ratz, 1141; Christian Doctrine, 1626; Prayers and Hymns, 1686; 
 Prayers, &c. by Materre, 1616, and a work on Penitence, by Axular, 
 1642. 
 
 There were several other books of the same character published in 
 various provinces where the language was not so pure. The first 
 book in point of date is not mentioned b^ Larramendi, it was a com- 
 plete translation of the New Testament printed at Rochelle in 1571. 
 
XIX 
 
 Astarloa engaged in an analysis of the words of the basque lan- 
 guage ; and in this hopeless task he persevered till the day of his 
 death, with a zeal almost incredible, when we consider what he says 
 himself of the copiousness of that language ; he asserts, (as quoted 
 by Lecluse) that it has 4,126,564,929 words ! not comprising ary hav- 
 ing more than three syllables ! and these are in no small quantity ; 
 " quatro mille ciento veinte y seism.llones, quinientassesentay quatro 
 mil novecientas veinte y nueve voces monosilabas, disilabas, y trisila- 
 bas ; en este calculo no entran voces de mayor numero de silabas," 
 (says he.) Of this immensity of words he was not able to complete 
 the analysis of more than 10,000 in ten years. Here is a calculation 
 which goes infinitely beyond the most extravagant estimate of the most 
 extravagant of the Chinese literati ; (this, now indeed reduced to 
 20,000 jnonosyllables,) by what method or mathematical process Mr 
 Astarloa was able to reach such a result, is, I allow, wholly incon- 
 ceivable ; yet if the language approaches in any degree to the vast 
 copiousness which he ascribes to it, hence I think may be drawn the 
 strongest argument in favor of its primitive character, and of its having 
 been infused ; for the possibility of its having been formed by man, is 
 yet more remote ; and the probability that it embraced every species 
 of knowledge, is augmented ; and thus no small portion of the abund- 
 ant and learned labors which have appeared on the origin and affinity 
 of languages, with the various inferences which have been drawn from 
 them as to the derivation of some nations from others, and finally the 
 ancient pretensions of the Celtic, Teutonic, Persic, and Sanscrit 
 idioms — all these vanish before the superior importance, or are dis- 
 solved in the superior and well established claims of the Basque. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Some Account of the Attempts heretofore made to Explain the Primi- 
 tive Alphabetical Characters of Spain, and to Interpret its Inscriptions 
 and Medals, "i " - --"--'-■. 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 On the Antiqueness of the Art of Writing, 5 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the Origin of Writing and the Antiqueness of the Celtiberian Alpha- 
 bet, -------- 10 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Error of those who have expected to find in the Phoenecian and 
 Grecian Languages and Alphabets the Origin of the Alphabet and 
 Idiom of Primitive Spain, - - - 16 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Greek Alphabet is not of Phoenecian but of Spanish Origin. - 19 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Demonstration that the Greek Alphabet is derived from the Basque, 26 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Application of the Preceding Observations. 36 
 
XX11 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the Attempts of some Learned Men to discover the Primitive 
 Language ; and on the singular Character and Perfection of that 
 Language, ....... 39 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Primitive Language was infused by the Creator and not formed by 
 Man, -------- 46 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Confusion of Babel cannot be opposed as a Proof against the Exist- 
 ence of the Primitive Language, - - - - 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Solution of some Objections to the foregoing Opinions, - 54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Rules necessary to be observed in the Analysis of Words, and of 
 the true Euphony, ------ 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Of Numbers, or the first Part of the System of the Universe. Its Mat- 
 ter, 62 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of Numbers — in Continuation. On the Soul of the Universe, or the 
 Principles and Laws of its Movements, - - 74 
 
PART I 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Some Account of the Attempts heretofore made to Explain the 
 primitive Alphabetical Characters of Spain, and to Interpret 
 its Inscriptions and Medals. 
 
 There are but few literary subjects which in these latter 
 times have more occupied, — though with such few solid re- 
 sults, the researches of men of genius, than the laborious and 
 dry study of the ancient monuments of Spain. Juan iV n dres 
 Estran, the archbishop of Tarragona, Antonio Augustin, Ber- 
 nardo Alderte, Uztarroz, Flores, and a number of other Span- 
 iards well known in the republic of letters, as well as some 
 foreigners of equal merit, after much and studious investiga- 
 tion, have been obliged to abandon the pursuit ; — the most 
 persevering of them arriving at merely plausible conjecture, 
 proving nothing, or adventuring on interpretations unsatisfactory 
 to the learned world, and probably even to themselves. 
 
 Nevertheless the labors of some of these distinguished 
 scholars deserve special mention, as having been to a certain 
 small degree productive, though not so in proportion to their 
 meritorious efforts. 
 
 Don Luis Velasquez was able to discover some Cekiberian 
 letters, but as to others he was wholly perplexed, so that his 
 alphabet is full of errors. Doctor Don Juan Francisco Andres, 
 the Jesuit Rajas and Don Francisco de la Huerta, these origin- 
 ated, the opinion that the inscriptions on the Celtiberic-coins 
 were primitive Spanish letters ; the Jesuits Larremendi and 
 Terreros advanced a little further, and ventured to assert — 
 that these were basque characters, — which opinion they main- 
 1 
 
tained in the firm persuasion that the original language of Spain 
 had been the basque. The subject remained in this state till 
 the year 1S01, when the priest Luis Carlos Zuniga published 
 a paper, in which he attempted to explain the inscriptions on 
 some coins, but without any considerable success, for he was 
 deficient in the knowledge of the basque language. Jacob 
 Barry, Dutch consul at Seville, also endeavored to explain some 
 of the characters — on certain Betican coins. It appears by 
 his correspondence that he considered these " turdetanian 
 characters to be very easy of explanation" but from the mis- 
 takes which he made it is evident that he did not understand 
 the idiom ; — the fact is, that in his time this study occupied the 
 attention of many learned men, Mr Barry was ambitious of 
 appearing amongst them, but being totally unqualified, he failed 
 to produce any thing worth notice. Boyer was not more for- 
 tunate in his attempt to explain the Celiiberian characters; his 
 alphabet and interpretations are very defective and incorrect. 
 In fine, a genuine explication of the Spanish medals and in- 
 scriptions is at present an enigma which the discordances of 
 the learned who have attempted a solution have served still 
 further to perplex. This is one of those secrets buried under 
 a mass of prejudice still sustained by some of the most in- 
 genious writers, who have not hesitated to pronounce it to be " a 
 secret* never to be discovered ;" — " which has been always 
 and must still remain unknown ;" — " which is in a language 
 now lost," &c. thus contributing to discourage others from an 
 attempt to elucidate it. 
 
 Notwithstanding these assertions, and the little confidence 
 which I may have in my own limited capacity of making any 
 very important progress in a matter which the most learned 
 antiquarians have been obliged to abandon in despair ; yet I 
 engage in it not without hope of overcoming its difficulties, be- 
 ing persuaded that the disappointment of those who have gone 
 before me has been wholly owing to their imperfect acquaint- 
 ance with the basque language. 
 
 The commencement of my investigations was in 179S, when 
 by a rare accident I became possessed of several Celtiberian 
 coins, and though 1 was then aware of the great labor" which 
 many learned men had fruitlessly employed in the interpreta- 
 tion of similar monuments, yet my vehement desire of deci- 
 phering them overcame all discouraging considerations, and 
 impelled me to encounter the difficulties and obscurities to be 
 removed before I could establish my system on solid principles, 
 
and found on it some progress in this branch of antiquarian 
 research. During the same year, I happened to visit the city 
 of Soria ; its position is in ancient Celiiberia, surrounded by 
 the ruins of many other cities which were formerly of impor- 
 tance ; there I was enabled to collect a considerable number of 
 ancient coins, which together with some drawings and plates 
 of old collections, and the comparison of these with my coins, 
 afforded sufficient light to enable me to form a clear idea of the 
 true import of the primitive signs, — as shall be more particularly 
 explained hereafter. 
 
 *The Basques will certainly see with great satisfaction, those 
 primitive characters by which their illustrious ancestors trans- 
 
 *The reader will find that throughout this work — " Basques" and Eus- 
 caldunes" are denominations indiscriminately made use of by the author to 
 designate the same people ; it will also be observed that in some places the 
 language is called basque and in other places Euscaran ; — it is proper there- 
 fore to explain this variety : — it may have been here and there employed 
 merely to change the diction, but the name basque has been more frequently 
 used because more familiar to the ear, being modern as well as ancient. The 
 Euscaran language (with some differences in dialect) extended over the 
 greater part of Spain, — it is now confined to a few mountainous provinces 
 on either side of the Pyrennes, inhabited by the descendants of the Euscal- 
 dunes; — these are all called " basques," their original provincial name still 
 preserved; — hence the propriety of the same denomination applied to the 
 language. 
 
 The Etymology of these and some other names has been furnished to me by 
 Don Jose Francisco de Aizquebel a learned basque now residing in Paris — 
 in a note of which the following is a translation. 
 
 " The basque language is called Euskera — its etymology— is in the word 
 *' Eusk-i — which means the Sun — and the word — era — which signifies 
 mode or manner •, — taken together — manner of the Sun — or of the East ; 
 for in the Euscaran language " Sun" is often used to denote the " East." 
 The words — " Euskara" — " Euskaera" are also used. 
 
 " Euskeldunack (the basque people) has its etymology in the word eusker 
 —and the relative participle dunak or duenak — which means those who 
 hold or possess — that is to say those who hold or possess the Euskara (or 
 basque language. ) 
 
 Note. " This single word which fixes and determines the origin of our 
 nation, leaves me without doubt as to the oriental origin, of our ancestors." 
 
 " Basco is a syncope of Baso-ko and is derived from Base — woods (or 
 forests) — and ko of—that is, of the forests — from this has been formed the 
 Castillan word Bascongada (Basque.) 
 
 " Bizkaya — is derived from biz — or piz (foam, spume) and kaya (port or 
 gulph) — thatis to say z" foamy girfph" — applied to the tempestuous char- 
 acter of the sea on the whole coast of Canitabria. 
 
 " JVavana — is derived from the word nava (plain) and arra (inhabitant) 
 — that is, inhabitants of the plain in contradistinction to — Basco — or of the 
 forests. 
 
 " Erdcra this is the name which we give to the Castillan language and it 
 is derived either from Erdu-era or Erdi-cra — if from Erdu (arrived or 
 come) — and era (manner) — then it says — in the manner of the comers, 
 alluding to the Phoeneeians and Carthagcnians or other nations who entered 
 into Spain subsequently to the Euscaldunes, — if the second is the true ety- 
 
ferred to metal and stone their ideas, in the very language 
 which we still use : — herein will be a new proof of the high 
 antiquity of their origin, and of the possession of the country 
 which they now inhabit ; a possession more ancient than can 
 be boasted of by any nation in the world. Spaniards in gen- 
 eral will learn what was the universal language of their country, 
 and the origin of its first settlers; and if hitherto a captious 
 criticism has required of us to produce in monuments, medals 
 and inscriptions, proofs of the antiquity of our Euscaran lan- 
 guage in Spain, — this cavil shall now cease to have any weight, 
 for I will prove that the most ancient monuments which our 
 nation possess, are basque ; basque the characters engraved on 
 them ; and basque the primitive religion represented by the 
 figures hitherto so erroneously interpreted.* 
 
 mology then it is Erdi (middle) and era (manner) and means — meridional 
 manner, referring to the Sun in the middle of its course." 
 
 " As to the word Euscaldunes — this means those who use the Euscaran 
 language, duna — in basque is he who uses." 
 
 It may be well to add here the explanation which I have received from 
 the same gentleman of a few other words which will be frequently met 
 with in the following pages. 
 
 " Celtibtrian , ' > — refers to that territory which lays south of the Ebro 
 beginning with Old Castile — it is derived from celt — (beyond) — and iber 
 which is the proper name of the river. 
 
 " Betica" — which is a part of Celtiveria (now Andalusia) has its etymolo- 
 gy in — Be (low) — the letter t is Euphonical merely, and ica (country) — 
 the low country. 
 
 " Turdetania" — (or Turtetania) this is a part of what is now called 
 Murcia. 
 
 " Laburtania" — is that territory on the French side of the Pyrennes 
 which the Spaniards call the country of Labor, the French Labour or La- 
 bourt — and it extends from the Bidaossa to the Landes — the name is composed 
 with the word Labur or Lapur — which means a robber. 
 
 It would seem that the Basques considered all the population of the French 
 side of the Pyrennes in no favorable point of view, thus what is called Bor- 
 deaux — and which the Gascons flatter themselves has derived its name from 
 its situation on the borders of a large river, appears on the contrary to have 
 it explained by the basque language in a sense not very creditable to its an- 
 cient character — Burg"alaor Burdala — (Burdigalaby the Romans) is a brothel 
 — the original composition of the word — is bur, a dirty place (hence burgh 
 in the German — boroughs in English) and gala — which means — showy. 
 
 Barcelona — from Barcel prison — and ona good. 
 
 These proofs are in a variety of stones, coins, and other very curious 
 monuments examined by Mr Erro towards the conclusion of his first book, 
 the portion which I have not translated for the reasons mentioned in my 
 preface. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 On the Antiqueness of the Art of Writing. 
 
 One of the most admirable productions of the human genius 
 is the art of writing ; inferior to none in utility, essential to the 
 progress and perfection of all others, it forms a very powerful 
 bond in the social union. It enables us to perpetuate the im- 
 pression of fleeting words, to give a precise form to our most 
 subtile ideas, and to transmit to posterity a lively image of our 
 own times : yet the author of this important invention is un- 
 known, though we have not failed to preserve and to celebrate 
 the memory of those who have made discoveries of much less 
 importance to society. 
 
 The ^Egyptians, a vain people who endeavored to appropri- 
 ate to themselves all discoveries in all the sciences, have at- 
 tributed the glory of the one in question to their Join— the 
 Phcenecians to their Jaut, and the Greeks to Cadmus according 
 to some authors, and to Mercury according to others ; — finally 
 some ecclesiastic authors have given this honor to Moses, who, 
 as they say, transferred to alphabetical writing the hieroglyph- 
 ics which were anterior to his time ; but putting aside these 
 various pretensions growing out of that national partiality, which 
 naturally enough, lays claim to the honor of useful inventions, 
 it is proper that we should examine the matter more severely, 
 and by the light of impartial reason. 
 
 Ever since the creation of the world man has been in pos- 
 session of arts and inventions essential to his well being, and 
 also of such as are contributive to the charms of his social 
 existence : — agriculture and architecture are of the first class ; 
 music and poetry of the second. 
 
 The first man, deprived of the favor of God, had by his sin 
 opened the way to all the evils of life ; seeking a remedy for 
 these according to the intelligence with which he found himself 
 endowed, he began to invent arts of necessity, and then those 
 of enjoyment, or mere convenience. Thus Adam and his 
 sons (according to the sacred writings) were occupied with 
 agriculture and the care of herds, — many years before Enos 
 invented harmonic sounds with which to give utterance in 
 hymns to the gratitude filling his heart, when he contemplated 
 the works of the Creator ; — this art was preserved in his family 
 
and gradually perfected through six generations to Jubal, who 
 invented the lyre and the organ. If man did not receive the 
 knowledge of letters with his other endowments at the time of 
 the creation, he must at a very early period have felt the want 
 of, and invented them. It is in his nature to admire grand and 
 marvellous events, and to record them, especially when they 
 have an immediate relation to himself. The creation of the 
 world, — of himself and woman ; — the immediate communica- 
 tion in which he was placed with God himself; — the dominion 
 which was given to him over all other creatures ; the magnificent 
 views of nature just from the hands of the Creator in all the 
 splendor of its divine origin ; — the paradise lost, but promised 
 to be restored to his descendants ; — such an epoch of his ex- 
 istence he must have desired to transmit to his posterity by a 
 written record, and not to leave exposed to the chances of im- 
 perfect tradition. From the sacred writings we also learn, that 
 Cain the elder son of Adam was the founder of a city ; from 
 that time the augmenting population spread over the face of 
 the earth in families — whose common origin, arts, usages and 
 regulations, rendered indispensible a communication amongst 
 them by writing. In all ages the genius of man has been in- 
 ventive, in that age w T hen he enjoyed a very extended exist- 
 ence, and therefore was better able to bring to perfection his 
 inventions, he must have found out the art of writing — amongst 
 those which were most essential to the social union ;■ — again, 
 the moral corruption of a nation is ordinarily the result of ex- 
 cessive luxury ; — it is evident then, that the vices, which 
 according to Moses, brought on mankind the judgment of the 
 deluge, suppose a state of society far advanced beyond those 
 simple arts which are necessary to sustain life according to the 
 frugal ordinances of nature ; — thus it is to be presumed that 
 commerce and agriculture, and sciences in general, had reached 
 a degree of perfection at which without the art of writing they 
 could not have arrived. 
 
 But to return to the traditions of the most ancient people, 
 Phoenecians and ^Egyptians, each attributing to itself the honor 
 of the alphabet by their Jaaut or Jout; — may not this name 
 be Jaun, Jova or Jouda — names given to the Creator in the 
 primitive language. 
 
 The traditions of nations have in them generally a founda- 
 tion of truth, — though in the course of ages disfigured and 
 confused in its circumstances so as to obscure its origin. Thus 
 the Phoenecians descendants from Canaan grandson of Noah, 
 
having received the tradition that Jaun or Jova had given to 
 their remote ancestor Adam, the knowledge of letters and the 
 art of writing, in their ignorance of God — conceived the inven- 
 tion to be human, and attributed to a mortal the supposed au- 
 thor of it, the name of the deity whom they knew not. Moses 
 the sacred historian, and a most learned man, relates in his 
 Pentateuch the events of nearly three thousand years, with as 
 much exactness and precision of details, as could have done 
 any one who had been a personal witness of them ; these com- 
 pose a multitude of generations and names very difficult to be 
 preserved in the memory by tradition, particularly as they are 
 in a strange language ; names also of cities and rivers, and an 
 exact catalogue of the ages of the patriarchs and of the first 
 individuals of the human race. 1 well know that our mother 
 the Catholic church teaches that these holy books are from the 
 inspiration and revelation of God, and so we her children be- 
 lieve , — but even without this superior authority, I hold it to be 
 probable, that the art of writing having been in use from the 
 first ages of the creation, Moses may have found in those writ- 
 ten memorials of the first people which were preserved by 
 Noah, an entire history of all the most important events which 
 had occurred down to his time ; events which were doubtless 
 notorious to the people whom he led, and amongst whom he 
 wrote, for the purpose of reminding them incessantly of the 
 great benefits bestowed on them by the Creator. I am the 
 more inclined to this opinion by the authority of that learned 
 historian Flavins Josephus, — who though a writer much poste- 
 rior, yet is considered in the republic of letters as one of the 
 first authorities, as well on account of his profound erudition, 
 as for the particular respect due to the notices extracted by 
 him from the annals of Chaldea which he had examined with 
 great attention, and which as we know contained the most 
 ancient accounts of the world ; — now Josephus says in his 
 work on the Jewish antiquities " Seth (son of Adam) as soon 
 as he had arrived at the age of reason, gave himself up wholly 
 to the exercise of virtue ; and he had children who succeeded 
 him, and imitated him in this course : these lived together in 
 perfect union and harmony, and without suffering any adver- 
 sity ; — they were the inventors of astronomy, and knowing by 
 a prediction from Adam that the earth was to be purified by 
 water and fire, and fearing lest their scientific discoveries might 
 thus be lost to mankind, they erected two columns, one of brick 
 and one of stone, and on each of these, they wrote all the 
 
8 
 
 knowledge which they had acquired, to the end that if the 
 waters should destroy the column of brick, that of stone re- 
 maining, mankind might be informed, by what was written on 
 it, of the progress made in science." From this authority is to 
 be inferred not merely that the art of writing was known in the 
 lime of Seth, — but anterior to it ; — for it is not to be supposed 
 that those who have so particularly displayed the merits of that 
 illustrious man and his offspring, — and have acquainted us with 
 their knowledge in astronomy, would have omitted to specify 
 amongst their attainments this most important art of writing 
 had it been one of their discoveries. It is therefore to be pre- 
 sumed that the family of Seth learnt this art from Adam, as 
 also the science of numbers which opened the way to their 
 astronomical observations and calculations. There is a passage 
 in the Grecian geographer Strabo, which appears to me is also 
 to the purpose ; — extolling the civilization of the Turtitans, he 
 says, " they preserved written memorials of antiquity and have 
 (as is said) poems and laws in verse, six thousand years old." 
 This passage of Strabo has given rise to contestations amongst 
 the learned, some believing it to be an absurd and exaggerated 
 boast of the Turtitans, and others defending it by means of a 
 reduction of the solar years to years of three or four months 
 duration ; — but both these opinions may be combated by argu- 
 ments of very considerable weight ; — the first opinion is op- 
 posed to what Strabo received from credible witnesses ; — to 
 the traditions of that learned people ; and to the very docu- 
 ments which they cited and produced ; for Strabo says ex- 
 pressly, that they preserved " written memorials of antiquity :" 
 the second opinion is founded on a merely arbitrary system, 
 for the testimony in its favor which is attempted to be drawn 
 from Xenophon in his treatise " JEquivocis temporum" where 
 it is said that " the Iberians ordinarily calculate by the year of 
 four months and rarely by the solar year," has against it the 
 fatal presumption of being an interpolation by the famous 
 Dominican, of Viterbo : — besides, Strabo was a very judicious 
 man, and one of the most ingenious critics of his time ; he 
 treated particularly of all that related to Spain, and it is most 
 probable that he had not passed without notice this singular 
 mode of computation, had it in fact existed there ; — but neither 
 he, nor the Roman historians, have made the least mention of 
 it, notwithstanding the frequent opportunities of doing so pre- 
 sented in their annals : — nor could a man of his profound eru- 
 dition be ignorant of the years of antiquity as calculated from 
 
the creation ; he must at least have been acquainted with the 
 best accredited opinions of the learned men of his own time ; — 
 therefore, in referring to the ancient Turtitanan writings, it is 
 not to be supposed that he would have given his authority to 
 the opinion of the learned Spaniards who had founded their 
 assertion, as to the antiquity of their language, on the very 
 documents notoriously in their archives, unless he had deemed 
 that opinion to be highly probable. Those who treat this nar- 
 ration as an absurd exaggeration of history, very well know 
 that an exact rule of computation has not yet been generally 
 agreed on ; — can they pretend to tell us how many years had 
 passed from the creation to the time of Strabo ? This question 
 has given rise to various opinions ; — amongst others of the last 
 century was that of Bayle, which states, that from the creation 
 to the coming of the Messiah, that is to within a few years of 
 the time of Strabo, there had passed six thousand one hun- 
 dred years, an hundred more than the calculation of the 
 Grecian geographer ; — but even - by the computation of our own 
 calendar, it is evident that the world had five thousand two 
 hundred years of age in the time of Strabo; — hence as there 
 is the best reason to suppose that the writings of the Turtitans 
 had preserved the records of events immediately following the 
 creation, the assertion of the Spaniards as to the precise period, 
 cannot be considered to be much if at all exaggerated, seeing 
 that to this day there are differences in opinion on the matter. 
 Nevertheless I will not insist on the narration of Strabo as un- 
 questionable, — it suffices for my purpose so far as to prove that 
 the Turtitanan writings go back to the first ages of the world, — 
 and that the origin of writing is to be sought for in that high 
 antiquity; — this opinion receives still further confirmation from 
 the authority of Pliny, who, speaking of the antiqueness of 
 writing, says " the use of letters is from eternity." As to the 
 origin of the writings of Betica, I will hereafter expose my own 
 opinion and the powerful reasons by which it is supported ; and 
 in the alphabet which follows will be found, I trust, not a few 
 good additional reasons for concluding that the invention of let- 
 ters is to be sought for very early after the creation : — This is 
 certain, that the Phcenecians, Assyrians, or Cananeans (*the 
 same people under different names) to whom has been attributed 
 
 *The same people — that is to say, these different denominations of 
 the same people are found in various authors, but in fact the Assyrians 
 were a very different people from the Syrians and Phoenecians, at least it is 
 evident that Pliny speaks of these as ot three distinct nations. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 the invention of letters, have an alphabet which is not their 
 own, — but which they must have inherited from a people much 
 more ancient than they ; — the names of their letters are not of 
 Phoenecian origin, nor can the etymology or rational principle 
 of them be found in the Phoenecian language ; — but it may be 
 asked what nation can be more ancient than that whose origin 
 may be traced up to the division of the first language of man ? 
 I answer — the primitive people, — the people who possessed the 
 primitive language, and who had doubtless an immemorial 
 alphabet ; — the same which the Phcenecians afterwards used 
 with but little alteration ; — this inference arises from the fact 
 that no other than the primitive language can give a suitable 
 explanation of the names and value of the letters, and this 
 would not have been so had the alphabet been of Cananean in- 
 vention, for then the letters would have been conformable to 
 the genius of that language, — and might have been explained 
 by it as they now are by the primitive idiom. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the Origin of Writing and the Antiqueness of the Celtibe- 
 rian Alphabet 
 
 The existence of the art of writing in the first ages of the 
 world being allowed, — it remains for us to ascertain the char- 
 acters which were then used ; — this investigation may appear 
 to some persons to be unnecessary, since according to the gen- 
 eral opinion of the learned it must be fruitless ; nevertheless 
 proofs are not wanting which may give to this historical point 
 that degree of probability which history admits as in general 
 sufficient with regard to events of remote antiquity. 
 
 Some would persuade themselves that hieroglyphics were 
 the first alphabets used : — others say, that as the sciences were 
 not perfect from the beginning, but were gradually perfected by 
 long experience and meditation, so of writing, they suppose 
 that from its origin it was not of that facility, which as now, 
 enables us to commit to paper our most minute thoughts, our 
 most delicate sentiments, and our most tender affections ; but 
 
11 
 
 that at the beginning images and symbols supplied the purpose 
 of writing ; — for example, that eternity was represented by a 
 snake with his tail in his mouth, the world by a ball, the pas- 
 sion of anger by a lion, a king by a sceptre, — and so on : — by 
 such means, as is conjectured, men were able to explain all 
 their thoughts and to preserve the records of the first ages. 
 Now those who think thus, assume a general principle, and 
 without allowing of any exception, build on it the whole ma- 
 chinery of their system and erudition ; but a mere glance at 
 the subject will satisfy us, that by such means it had been im- 
 possible to preserve that minute narration of the events of the 
 primitive ages which Moses makes us acquainted with ;— 
 hieroglyphics could only have served to transmit in gross some 
 principal occurrences ; — not to relate the conversations of God 
 with Adam, — of Eve and the serpent ; — to record the names 
 of the patriarchs, their ages, their opinions; — the measure and 
 proportions of the ark ; and a variety of other minute circum- 
 stances ; — it was by writing only that these could have been 
 preserved till the time of Moses. 
 
 It is certain that all languages, the basque only excepted, 
 present innumerable difficulties in perfecting the art of writing. 
 We cannot conceive how, without incessant and profound appli- 
 cation throughout many ages, man was able to comprehend 
 those principles which constitute the excellence of this wonder- 
 ful invention, — the mechanism of its several parts, and the 
 application of a determinate character to each modulation of 
 the voice in pronunciation ; these certainly are labors of very 
 great prolixity, and the general opinion is, that the human intel- 
 lect could not have achieved them but by very slow degrees 
 and after numberless experiments; — the learned will see that 
 these difficulties are very much diminished when they examine 
 the basque language and its admirable composition. 
 
 Our reason as well as religion presents to us in a single indi- 
 vidual the origin of our race : — this individual was created with 
 all the qualities which we acknowledge to be essentially in 
 man's nature ; having been created social, he was endowed 
 with all the dispositions belonging to the social state ; — he had 
 consequently a language, and that language must have been in- 
 spired by the Author of his being ; from the sacred writings we 
 learn that this first man but a few moments after he was created 
 held conversation with God, — hence alone we must infer that 
 the Creator had enriched his intellect with profound and exten- 
 sive knowledge : we see, as stated by Moses in the book of 
 
12 
 
 Genesis, that as soon as God had created the beasts and birds, 
 he carried them to Adam that he might give names to them ; — 
 here again is made evident the extraordinary degree of wisdom 
 which God had bestowed on the first individual of the human 
 race, — for the names which Adam gave importing so exactly 
 the characteristic qualities by which each species was distin- 
 guished—suppose in him a perfect knowledge of all nature. 
 It is equally evident that Adam had as perfect knowledge of 
 the language in which he spoke, since he employed its most 
 nice expressions in the names which he gave to the productions 
 of the creation. He knew that this language was composed of 
 various members each having its representation marked by 
 nature in the modulations of the voice ; he knew that these 
 were in a determinate number ; the import of each ; and that 
 all united and used with the discrimination and accuracy which 
 the Creator had ordained, formed the true and scientific 
 language of nature :— thus he knew that the modulation of the 
 voice in pronouncing the i always signified penetration, — in the 
 g connectedness, — in the b profundity — in the d multitude, 
 and so on ; such he found to be invariably the principle of his 
 language ; — and herein is the origin of the art of writing. 
 
 The number of the modulations of the voice in pronuncia- 
 tion, and the signification of each modulation, being known to 
 Adam, as they must necessarily have been, since he spoke 
 an original inspired language, — was alone in the world, and 
 could not therefore take from any precedent those very appo- 
 site names which he gave to all things, — hence it was easy 
 for him to mark his ideas on the sand (which we may 
 suppose to have been his first tablet) in characters which indi- 
 cated the value of the modulations, and gave an idea of the 
 representation belonging to them ; — the characters made equal 
 in number to the modulations with which he was acquainted ; — 
 for example, he knew that the modulation a denoted extension, 
 and to mark this signification he invented a character, — not one 
 arbitrary and insignificant, but that which presents at the first 
 view of it an idea of its value, — (see the plate) — indeed nothing 
 could so naturally represent extension as measure, and at a time 
 when there had not been invented any means of ascertaining it 
 otherwise than by steps, — the representation of these by the 
 angle which the legs form in making them, gave the most exact 
 idea which the mind could receive through the sight ; — he 
 knew that the modulation i, always denoted penetration, and 
 therefore he represented it by the form of an arrow. (See the 
 
13 
 
 plate.) After the fall of man he was under the necessity of 
 inventing weapons, as well for his defence as to procure sub- 
 sistence ; — it may be reasonably supposed, that the arrow, one 
 of the most simple, was one of the first of those weapons ; — 
 and what more perfect sign could he have used to represent 
 penetration, — this is precisely the signification of the i in the 
 Euscaran alphabet. The modulation of the o in basque words 
 signifies roundness and height, and in abstract ideas infinite ; — 
 it was to represent these qualities that the first man formed the 
 sign o, — in pronouncing this letter nature itself determines its 
 form by closing the extremities of the mouth and elevating the 
 lips so as to complete a circle ; — then as to its abstract signifi- 
 cation, what can give a better idea of infinite than that which 
 has neither beginning nor end : — the same reasoning applies to 
 consonants as to vowels ; the modulation of the c always signi- 
 fies cut in basque words, and therefore it is represented by the 
 figure of a sickle, which for reaping or cutting herbs for the 
 cattle, must have been one of the first invented of agricultural 
 instruments, and it is thus that we find it on many of the most 
 ancient basque coins. In this way, by means of the apt appli- 
 cation of certain material instruments invented by man for pur- 
 poses similar to those for which nature intended his modulations 
 by means of the value which she gave to them in the pronun- 
 ciation, did the first societies proceed in the formation of the 
 primitive alphabet. 
 
 I am well aware that this system will appear arbitrary to 
 those who regard with prepossession all discoveries which lay 
 without the circle of their acquirements, or are in any degree 
 opposed to their principles; — but the observations of philosophy 
 on the wisdom of the first operations of mankind, are in accord 
 with rny opinions. It must be allowed that the inventor of 
 writing had an exact knowledge of the value of the modula- 
 tions of the voice ; — nature, which was his master, early taught 
 him that to make his invention useful to mankind, it was neces- 
 sary to render ideas transmissible "by means of signs, the repre- 
 sentation of which denoting the civil utility of their archetypes, 
 would lead directly to the knowledge of their signification, 
 without recourse to social convention which depends on the 
 capriciousness of man. The hoe, — the arrow, — the ladder, — 
 the yoke, were inventions of the first society ; and even now 
 we scarce look on them, but that independent of all convention, 
 the ideas of labor, penetration, ascension, and subjection, are 
 presented to the mind ; — for those are the instruments of these 
 
14 
 
 effects : nature having indicated these ideas in the modulations 
 of the voice, and instructed man in the application of them, 
 could lie in carrying into practice his desire, neglect the pre- 
 cepts of this all wise mistress, and omit to make use of deter- 
 minate characters representing such instruments as should di- 
 rect the intelligence of those amongst whom writing was to be 
 a means or communication. 
 
 These reasons are more than sufficient to persuade us that 
 the inventor of writing did not make use of arbitrary charac- 
 ters, — but that attending to the import of signs in relation to 
 modulations, he applied to the representation of these, such 
 instruments as by their use in society gave the most exact idea 
 of their signification : if there are persons who are disposed to 
 think otherwise, and that the first man was not acquainted with 
 these simple and necessary operations of nature, I will ask 
 them whether they can still deny the force of my opinion, and 
 refuse the conviction of their own senses, when after an 
 examination of the original characters on the monuments 
 and coins of Spain, they shall see that the pickaxe, the 
 hoe and the pitch fork are frequently found expressing the 
 value of modulations ; will they deny that there now exists, 
 as I shall make manifest, an alphabet which preserves in the 
 names of its characters the signification which nature has given 
 to the modulations of the voice ; and that from these figures 
 applied according to the principles of the same alphabet, and 
 peculiar to our primitive language, result beautiful conceptions 
 in legends precisely appropriate to the purposes for which they 
 were intended ? I address my reasoning to those of the learn- 
 ed, who, disposed to seek truth in philosophy and history, are 
 unshackled by preventional opinions which enslave the intel- 
 lect ; — a close examination of the elements of the Spanish 
 alphabet convinces me that it is the same as w r as used by the 
 first individuals of the human race ; — for it is to be observed 
 that the alphabets of all other known languages are composed 
 of arbitrary characters in no wise indicating by their form the 
 intention of nature as to the modulations which they repre- 
 sent ; — herein is a total absence of those principles and that 
 consummate wisdom which we observe that nature has manifested 
 in all the first operations of mankind, — and in the mechanism 
 of the.Euscaran language. 
 
 Superadded to these reasons, — there is in confirmation of 
 
 &***"*& m y °P unon as t0 lne ra liqji ity of the Celtiberian writing, the 
 
 text of Strabo before referred to, proving that the Spaniards 
 
15 
 
 had preserved laws and poems in verse of six thousand years 
 date ;* it is to be presumed that the earliest in date of these 
 writings had been brought to Spain by the first settlers of the 
 country, and it is to be inferred that the characters of them 
 were the most ancient in the world. That the Celtiberian 
 characters were brought to Spain by the first emigrants from 
 the plains of Senaar, is a fact which in fair criticism does not 
 admit of a doubt ; — these characters of time immemorial, — 
 are found in the Spanish inscriptions and on coins forming 
 words in the basque language the most ancient in the world ; 
 (as will be shown hereafter) — they are not, nor have they the 
 least affinity or resemblance to the Phcenecian characters ; nor 
 did the Phoenecians arrive in Spain lill 800 years after its first 
 settlement : the) 7 are not Grecian, for though the alphabet of 
 that language has a considerable degree of connexion with ours, 
 yet we do not find in it a similar explanation of the signification 
 of its characters, — but on the contrary we see that they are 
 wholly arbitrary ; — besides, the Greeks date their alphabet only 
 from the time of Cadmus who brought it to Greece, whereas 
 the authority of Strabo above cited gives to our alphabet an 
 anteriority of some centuries : — nor can it be believed by those 
 w r ho are acquainted with the Greeks and their inordinate love 
 of fame, that Asclepiades, who lived many years in Andalusia 
 and wrote on the antiquities of that country, — that Polibius,— 
 Posidonius, — Artimidorus, Eforus, with many others who wrote 
 on the affairs of Spain, and even Strabo himself who had 
 before him the works of all these writers,- — that all these would 
 have left unnoticed a circumstance so important and so worthy 
 of record, as the introduction of the Greek alphabet into the 
 Peninsula, had such been the fact ; — this is the less to be 
 believed, since we find these same authors in defiance of all 
 probabilities to the contrary of their relations, insisting on cir- 
 cumstances of infinitely less importance to the gratification of 
 their national vanity, — such as the voyages of Ulysses and An- 
 tenor, of the companions of Teucer and Amphilocus, and 
 stories of this kind, which even had they been authentic — had 
 not thrown any extraordinary lustre on Greece; — so far are our 
 characters from being Punicf that they have not more relation 
 
 *Note. Lib : 3. Hi inter Hispaniae populos sapientia putantur excelere, 
 et literarum studiis utuntur, et memoranda? vetustatis volumim habent, 
 poemata; leges quoque versibus conscriptas e sex annorum millibus, ut 
 aiunt. 
 
 tThe Carthagenian language was a dialect of the Phaenecian— both of 
 them derived from the Hebrew. 
 
16 
 
 to them than they have to the Roman ; consequently having 
 existed from the most remote antiquity, and not having been 
 brought to Spain by any of the foreign tribes who have settled 
 in it, — the Celtiberian must be that primitive alphabet which 
 was brought by the first settlers, — and we find in it undoubted 
 evidence of its derivation from the Euscaran language. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Error of those who have expected to find in the Phcenecian 
 and Grecian Languages and Alphabets the Origin of the 
 Alphabet and Idiom of Primitive Spain. 
 
 The very little success which has attended the labors of the 
 many learned men who have attempted to explain the most 
 ancient inscriptions on the coins and other monuments of the 
 peninsula, — has led them into the error of concluding that the 
 primitive language of Spain was but a dialect of the Grecian 
 or of the Phcenecian ; or of both as some have supposed. It 
 is surprising that men in other respects of profound erudition, 
 should resort to conjectures of this nature, since it is evident 
 that when those foreign tribes came to Spain the country had 
 been peopled for many ages; and therefore to support their 
 professed opinion, it were necessary for these authors to assert 
 that the population was dumb till the arrival of the Phoenecians 
 and Greeks ; — absurd as is such an inference, yet it necessarily 
 results from a rash theory which has been adopted merely to 
 cover self-love and to avoid an ingenuous confession of igno- 
 rance. 
 
 Consequent on this error was that of attempting to find the 
 Spanish characters in the Grecian and Phcenecian alphabets, 
 and in those languages the interpretation of the ancient inscrip- 
 tions ; thus altogether losing the way which leads to the in- 
 vestigation of the truth ; — and this false conceit has not even 
 yet been wholly dissipated by the disappointment of those who 
 adopted it ; — the passage of Strabo is cited, where speaking of 
 the Turtitans — he says that not only they, " but all the Spaniards 
 knew the use of letters, though not in the same form — nor in 
 
17 
 
 the same language''''— -and from this it is pretended to infer that 
 there never existed in Spain a peculiar and general language. 
 Now I will concede for a moment in favor of this opinion 
 the utmost that it can pretend to, — namely, that Strabo meant 
 in this passage to speak of various and distinct languages in 
 Spain, and not of the several dialects belonging to our native 
 language ; — even in this supposition, it cannot be denied that 
 Strabo wrote in the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, 
 and that his observation refers to that epoch ; now who in cor- 
 rect logic can infer that because in the time of Strabo there 
 existed many languages in Spain, — there might not have been, 
 as there was in fact, a general language previous to the arrival 
 of strangers. It is allowed that in his time there were many 
 languages in Spain, Phcenecian, Grecian, Punic, and Roman, 
 which last as he says was the prevailing one in Betica ; — but 
 this fact does not in any wise exclude the other — namely, the 
 existence of a primitive language general throughout the king- 
 dom ; — the less, since it is evident as 1 think, that in the pas- 
 sage referred to, Strabo did in fact intend to speak of the 
 various dialects of the primitive language, that which the 
 basques now use, and not of the foreign languages with which 
 he was well acquainted, but was aware that it was not neces- 
 sary for him to refer to on that occasion : — and in fact the 
 basque language is spoken in an extraordinary variety of beau- 
 tiful dialects, amongst which are the Laburtanian, — the Gui- 
 puscoan, and the Biscayan ; — there are ten or twelve others, 
 now confined to small districts, but which were spread over 
 large tracts of country when the Euscaran was the general 
 language of Spain ; they differed as well in the accentuation, 
 as by a variety of inflexions; — hence it were not surprising if 
 even these same dialects had appeared to a stranger, as was 
 Strabo, to be distinct languages, — especially if his opinion had 
 been the result of a comparison between the three principal 
 dialects, which so much vary from each other as to present 
 some difficulty to a mutual understanding amongst the several 
 basque provinces who use them : — I for example am from 
 Andoain in Guipuzcoa, one of the districts in which the lan- 
 guage is spoken in its greatest purity, — yet I confess that it is 
 not without great difficulty that I can hold a conversation with a 
 Laburtanian, or with an inhabitant of the Pyrennean Navarre. 
 It being then indisputable that Spain was peopled before the 
 arrival of the Phcenecians, and that its inhabitants had a lan- 
 guage peculiar to themselves, to suppose this primitive language 
 3 
 
18 
 
 to be derived from the Phcenecian and Greek, is an unpardon- 
 ble anachronism in any man having pretensions to literature ; 
 consequently it is ahsurd to look into those languages for the 
 interpretation of our inscriptions and medals. 
 
 The same diversity noticed by the Greeks in the languages, 
 they observed also in the alphabets of the Peninsula ; — of these 
 there were -several in the time of Strabo ; — those used by the 
 Carthagenians, the Phoenecians, and the Romans, as well as 
 that of the Spaniards ; but this fact proves not anything 
 against the single primitive alphabet which was the Celtiberian ; 
 — all the others had been subsequently introduced, — this was 
 primitive and peculiar to the country ; and though some varieties 
 may be observed in it, these are in the merely accidental lorm 
 of the characters resulting from the tastes or fashions of dif- 
 ferent epochs : thus our common letters now in use, are sub- 
 stantially the same as they were two centuries ago, — yet in 
 many of our documents we find them so varied in their form 
 as to appear quite different. The English, French, and Span- 
 ish., all use the same characters, yet several of these have great 
 varieties in form, produced by the tastes of these different peo- 
 ple ; so it has been with the Euscaran letters — and this I doubt 
 not is the variety of which Strabo speaks. 
 
 Nevertheless it is necessary to mark well the distinction 
 between the Spanish alphabet and those of the strangers, so as 
 not to confound the characters of the one with the others. In 
 the Peninsula are frequently found coins of all descriptions, — 
 some Phcenecian, some Grecian, many Roman, and as 
 many of those called Celtiberian, which are primitive Spanish. 
 Now I do not undertake tiny explanation of these foreign coins, 
 that labor does not enter into my plan ; I leave it to those of the 
 learned who have a special knowledge of the alphabets and 
 languages in question ; — I shall treat only of Spanish inscrip- 
 tions, and the language and characters which form them ; I 
 will expose a clear and literal explanation of these, and it will 
 be seen that this discovery, so much desired, has not hitherto 
 been made, owing to the prejudice as regards the basque lan- 
 guage with which the investigations have been attempted ; — it 
 lias been supposed that nothing interesting to literature could be 
 found amongst the rustic inhabitants of northern Spain, amongst 
 tlrose whom Strabo and Mariana, and others who are neither 
 Strabos nor Marianas, call barbarous ; herein is the foundation 
 of ignorance, and the argument of unjust prepossession. But 
 nature produces its most perfect works in all places; the 
 
19 
 
 whole earth is, and always has been the object of the Creator's 
 bounty. Let then this remote corner of Spain now afford to 
 literature a discovery hitherto considered by the learned to be 
 impossible. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Greek Alphabet is not of Phoznecian but of Spanish 
 
 Origin. 
 
 •e 
 
 Don Pablo Pedro de Astorloa published last year (1 802) 
 his apology of the basque language, a work highly esteemed 
 by the learned : — amongst much interesting matter which it 
 contains, is the evidence that each of the letters of that lan- 
 guage has a particular signification and representation conform- 
 able to the dictate of nature ; — hence results one of the most 
 solid perfections of the Euscaran. The attentive consideration 
 which I had given to this same matter left me without the least 
 doubt of the same truth. I do not know but that my first im- 
 pression was somewhat of regret, that another person had pre- 
 ceded me in the discovery, but at the same time I was rejoiced 
 to find my opinion confirmed and supported by that of a 
 learned basque, to whose zeal and well directed erudition the 
 country was so highly indebted : — it is true that we had acquired 
 the knowledge of this peculiarity in our language by differ- 
 ent means, and in so far our discoveries were distinct; — 
 Astorloa had mounted to the first source, he had consulted 
 nature, inferring from the articulations, and the modulations of 
 the voice, the representation which she had appropriated to 
 each letter ; — whereas I began my investigations much lower, 
 and found the signification of the letters in other speculations: 
 a series of reflections on various etymologies in which I observ- 
 ed that the letters each exercised a special function, led me to 
 an examination of the ancient alphabets with a view to discover 
 some traces of the truth which 1 was in search of. Convinced 
 by repeated proofs not only of the extension of the Euscaran 
 in many parts of the world, but of the derivation from it of 
 various languages, it appeared to me very possible to make 
 
20 
 
 this quite evident, and after many efforts I found in the Hebrew 
 and Greek alphabets the value and representation of the basque 
 signs, thus at the same time ascertaining the origin of those 
 alphabets, and settling an important point of history.* 
 
 The wisdom which the Euscaldunes manifested in this por- 
 tion of literature, appears to have been almost beyond the pow- 
 er of human faculty ; — it was after the most profound con- 
 sideration of nature, — and having found in the modulations of 
 the voice the value and office of the smallest members of this 
 philosophical language, that they determined on their alphabet, 
 and thus perpetuated through successive generations that solid 
 instruction which led to a perfect understanding of the idiom 
 by means of a special denomination for each sign designating 
 its true value, and in a form which (lest pronunciation in the 
 course of time might destroy that value) should convey a sensi- 
 ble idea of the same signification ; — this is the alphabet called 
 Celtiberian or ancient Spanish, and borrowed from us by the 
 Greeks.f 
 
 I already see that this proposition will startle many a puny 
 literary genius ; — I hear these exclaim, " is it possible to tole- 
 rate such absurdity ; were there ever before such wild preten- 
 sions in the face of the most respectable authorities, and the 
 uniform testimony of ancient history :" — such clamors cannot 
 diminish the force of those arguments by which I have the 
 satisfaction to say that I shall make palpable, and completely 
 demonstrate the truth. The proper mode of defeating my 
 purpose, were to confute my arguments by solid reasoning ; — 
 this, directed like my own to the discovery of truth, and being 
 free from personalities, I should listen to with pleasure. I seek 
 truth through the obscurity of remote ages with the sole object 
 of establishing it, and thus restoring to my native language its 
 rights which have been usurped ; — amongst them is the alpha- 
 
 *Eusebius in his " Evangelical Preparation," speaking of the Hebrew 
 letters, observes, that they are the only letters which have significant names, 
 and hence he infers that they are the most ancient ; — it is this same character 
 in the basque, from which the Hebrew were derived, that leads Mr Erro to 
 a similar conclusion. 
 
 fPossibly there may appear to he some little obscurity in this passage ; 
 if so, it will be best elucidated by an example. The modulation of the voice 
 in pronouncing the 9th letter of the basque (which became the 10th in the 
 Greek) alphabet, determined the value to be given to that letter ; that is to 
 say, a certain modulation carried the sense of privation ; kapa then became 
 the name of the letter to express its value, and in such a form, that is K, 
 (or a yoke) as should convey a sensible idea of that value, according to the 
 author's explanation, (at the letter k.) 
 
21 
 
 bet, which the Greeks have appropriated to themselves, giving 
 the honor of its first invention to the Phoenecians. 
 
 I well know that all the ancient authors are of opinion that 
 the Greeks took their alphabet from the Phoenecians, and I 
 know that this is amongst the literati an established historical 
 fact, of which no one can doubt without incurring the censure 
 of temerity ; — yet I must say in deference to truth, that though 
 there are but few points in history so generally sanctioned as 
 fact, there are few which are so false ; — leaving this assertion 
 to be established hereafter, we will in the mean time lay down 
 five propositions. 
 
 1st. The Greek alphabet had originally but sixteen letters, 
 the Phoenecian twenty- two.* 
 
 2d. The Grecian letters have not the least resemblance in 
 their form to the Phoenecian. It is attempted to combat this 
 serious difficulty by supposing that the difference in the form of 
 the letters, was owing to the practice which the Greeks adopted 
 of writing from the left towards the right hand, though origin- 
 ally they had written from the right towards the left ; but this 
 argument is of no weight, for allowing that change from the 
 original practice, (which practice however was not without ex- 
 ceptions) the letters in that case were changed in their posi- 
 tions, — their angles turned towards the right hand instead of to 
 the left as before, but they were not otherwise changed in their 
 form. 
 
 3d. The ancient Grecian letters called Cadmean, are the 
 very identical Celtiberian letters. 
 
 4th. The original number of the Greek letters is the same as 
 the Celtiberian, and the names of them pure basque. 
 
 5th. The Phoenecians wrote from the right hand towards the 
 left, the Greeks from the left to the right, as did the Celtiberi- 
 ans ; — the argument that they formerly wrote in the other 
 direction is of no force, for that practice was not general, — and 
 if some monuments be found in which that method is noticed, 
 so also in the basque writings the same variation is to be seen, — 
 but of this I shall treat more fully hereafter. The very an- 
 cient Delphic inscription mentioned by Plinyf and in primitive 
 Grecian characters as he says, still further supports my opinion. 
 
 These are occular truths, and therefore incontrovertible ; and 
 they present on the first view vehement suspicion as to the 
 
 *Plin: lib : 8. cap ; — 56. Utique in Greciam intulisse c Phoenice cadmum 
 sedecim rmmero. 
 fPlin. Lib. 8. cap. 58. 
 
22 
 
 origin of the Greek alphabet. The sole foundation of the 
 opinions of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny and others in 
 favor of the Phoenecian origin, is that Cadmus, who lived in the 
 fifteenth century, (before Christ) introduced an alphabet into 
 Greece from Phoenecia, presuming that as he brought it from 
 thence its characters must needs have belonged to the alphabet 
 of that country. Cadmus was the son of Agenor king of the 
 Phcenecians by Telephassa his wife ; — the Grecian historians 
 tell us that Europa, the sister of Cadmus, having absented her- 
 self from the palace of Agenor under very suspicious circum- 
 stances, the anxiety produced by her departure resulted in the 
 determination of the family that Cadmus should go in search of 
 her through all the countries where she might probably have 
 taken refuge ; that in this pursuit having traversed various 
 territories without success, — fatigued by his labors, and having 
 lost the greater part of his attendants, he feared to return to 
 the presence of his father, and consulted the oracle of Delphos 
 as to the course which he should pursue ; — he was answered 
 that he should give up all thoughts of his country, — go to 
 Bceotia in Greece, and build a city for himself and companions 
 on the spot where he should find an ox. This story describes 
 as a traveller a young prince, who under the necessity of seek- 
 ing his sister, undertakes all the perils of navigation ; the ad- 
 vantages of a good education which he derived from his rank 
 enables him to profit by his travels ; as it is evident that he did 
 by his introducing an alphabet into Greece. At that period 
 the voyage to Spain was continually made by the Phcene- 
 cians; — the interesting accounts which the travellers gave of the 
 manners and customs of the inhabitants of Betica, — of the 
 beauty of the country, of its mines of gold and silver, and 
 of other surprising particularities, must naturally have induced 
 Cadmus to take that way, especially as he might reasonably 
 suspect that his sister had fled thither, seeing that the constant 
 commercial communication between the two countries afforded 
 the readiest means of escape : — thus it is highly probable that 
 Cadmus came to Spain, and that his cultivated mind profited of 
 the opportunity to acquire information in whatever of import- 
 ance was peculiar to that country ; an alphabet wholly new to 
 him, and much more conformable to the system of nature than 
 was his own, could not fail to excite his attention, and to engage 
 him in an examination of its construction, and the signification 
 of its characters. Having subsequently passed over to Greece 
 in obedience to the order of the oracle, and founded the city 
 
of Thebes in Boeotia, he there introduced the Spanish alphabet, 
 which gradually spread and became general throughout Greece. 
 
 But supposing the account of these voyages of Cadmus and 
 of his visit to Spain to bequestiorsable, — yet it cannot be denied 
 but that the Phoenicians mada frequent voyages thither.; on this 
 point all histories are in accord : — a sagacious people so wholly 
 addicted to commerce as were the Phcenecians, soon perceived 
 the great advantages to be derived from an intercourse with 
 Spain ; — they went in families and formed factories, so that in a 
 few years there was established an intimate and constant com- 
 munication between the two nations ; the gold of Spain excited 
 the avarice of the Phcenecians, and a taste for the manufactures 
 of the Phcenecians produced a corresponding commercial spirit 
 in the Spaniards. The Phcenecians must necessarily have made 
 themselves acquainted with the Spanish writings, for though they 
 had not been led to this acquirement by their decided taste for 
 the sciences, it became indispensable to their commercial pur- 
 suits ; — many Spaniards also passed over into Phcenecia : thus 
 in this double intercourse the Spanish alphabet and language 
 must have become known in that country. Is it to be supposed 
 that a prince of a nation which valued itself on its superior civil- 
 ization, should be ignorant in what related to the customs and 
 the knowledge of a people with whom his own were in such 
 constant and friendly communication, an intercourse to which 
 Phcenecia was principally indebted for its wealth and power? 
 I have always believed that he was not only well instructed on 
 all these matters before he quitted Phcenecia, but that the rape 
 of his sister was but a pretext for his voyage to Spain, and 
 that having enriched himself there, he feared to return home, 
 but, the more securely to enjoy what he had gained, passed over 
 to Greece and founded his city, pretending an order of the 
 oracle, at once to justify his absence from home, and to confirm 
 his authority in his new colony. 
 
 To convince us that the Grecian alphabet is of Phcenecian 
 origin, the ancient writers should have shewn at least that its 
 characters, and the names of them, were Phcenecian ; — hut this 
 was too arduous a task : — unquestionably when one nation adopts 
 the invention of another it commonly adopts at the same time the 
 appellations belonging to that invention, and these undergo no 
 other change than what results from the inflections of the voice 
 peculiar to the nation so adopting. This general mode of re- 
 ceiving the names of adopted inventions, is that also which ac- 
 cording to the general opinion prevailed in the origin of the 
 
24 
 
 Greek alphabet ; — let us see then how it applies in the present 
 argument, and examine without preoccupation the relation 
 which the Phoenecian and Grecian alphabetic denominations 
 may have to each other. If we observe a certain degree of 
 conformity, yet we shall find sucJi marked distinctions between 
 them, as to convince us that the conformity is only in that 
 degree which necessarily belongs to words having a common 
 origin, as in fact these two alphabets have in the primitive lan- 
 guage. Certain it is that the names of the signs of the two 
 alphabets differ, though there is some analogy in the sound of 
 them, and that the variation of the Greek from the Phoenecian 
 names renders the Greek names purely basque, and exact defi- 
 nitions of the value which nature gave to the modulations which 
 those signs represent ; — a very essential circumstance, and an 
 extraordinary provision, which leaves not any room to suppose 
 that the difference between the Phoenecian and Greek alphabet 
 has resulted from accident as some persons have asserted. 
 Those who would attribute the very marked difference which 
 exists between the Grecian and Phoenecian signs to the peculiar 
 genius of either language, must know that in tin's difference is 
 not to be observed any dependence on the inflections proper to 
 the Greek language ; the names of its letters have nothing an 
 them of a Grecian character, — nothing of the genius of that 
 idiom ; on the contrary, the strange names and inflections of the 
 alphabet lead us to seek an explanation of the difference in 
 question in some other principle, and not in the inflection of the 
 Greek language ; will perchance this difference be accounted 
 for by the alteration which all idioms undergo in the course 
 of ages; — but what reply can be made to the arguments in 
 favor of a language now presented to the learned world as 
 primitive, and laying claim to this very alphabet. It may 
 be allowed that by extraordinary casualty a word here and 
 there may be carried with some alteration from one language 
 into another, but this is not applicable to the present case ; 
 here we have sixteen signs of the primitive writing in which we 
 observe that the Grecian deviation from the denominations of the 
 Phoenecian letters, make pure basque. It is impossible to attribute 
 to mere casualty a concurrence of multiplied and studied com- 
 binations ; — nor can we make dependent on a single circum- 
 stance this fact, — sixteen being the foreign and primitive letters 
 of the Greeks, precisely the same number, sixteen of the twenty- 
 four which now compose their alphabet, are basque; — and 
 though we should admit, (no trifling admission) that it was by 
 
25 
 
 mere chance that the Greeks gave to those letters most appropri- 
 ate names taken from the basque language, of which they were 
 wholly ignorant, yet we cannot go so lar as to allow a possibility 
 that it was also by mere chance that they chose for the names of 
 their letters precise definitions of the value which nature gave to 
 them. And apart from all these incongruities, is there anyone 
 who can believe that the Greeks, finding the want of an alphabet, 
 took the letters of it from the Phoenecians, and the names of those 
 letters from the basques ? Now it is a fact that the characters which 
 the most eminent paleographists present to us as Cadmean and 
 primitive Grecian, are identically the same as the basque lan- 
 guage recognizes in inscriptions on coins and stones of the first 
 ages after the peopling of Spain ; those signs are in no wise Phoe- 
 necian, nor have they ever belonged to any language other 
 than the basque, for in that language only can be found their 
 representative character, and the determinate value of their 
 modulations; for the same reason it is certain that they were 
 not borrowed by the Euscaldunes from any other people. 
 
 Against all these facts and arguments how is it possible yet to 
 seek in the Phoenecian for the origin of the Greek alphabet, — 
 on no better ground than some analogy in the sound, or the 
 authority of a Grecian writer in an epoch many ages posterior 
 to that origin ; — authority is the last argument of philosophy in 
 matters of opinion, especially where, as in the present case, the 
 channel through which it is transmitted is of a questionable 
 character. 
 
 An adversary of Bernardo de Montfaucon in a pamphlet en- 
 titled " Priscis Grcecorum et Latinorum literis," felt the force 
 of these arguments.; his observations and researches proved to 
 him that the Greek alphabet had no relation to the Phoenecian 
 language ; but like one who satisfies himself without solid foun- 
 dations, and on incomplete examination, he attributes to Cadmus 
 the invention of the Zeta, Theta, and Xi, asserting that their 
 forms and appellations denote their Phoenician origin ; and as to 
 sixteen primitive letters he decides that they are Pelasgian : if 
 this author had rested satisfied with proving that these were not 
 Phoenecian, his opinions would have had more value ; — but the 
 attempt to make the three letters above mentioned Phoenecian, 
 whereas the two first of them have most apt significations in the 
 Euscaran,— -and then asserting that the Greek alphabet is Pe- 
 lasgian," without telling us what is this Pelasgian language, and 
 
 * Pelasgian— AH the ancient tribes of Greece were known by the name 
 of Pelasgi as long as they were migrant or vagabond — or lltxaLpyoi — storks, 
 4 
 
2G 
 
 what signification the Grecian characters have in that language ; 
 this as it appears to me proceeds from the desire of obtaining 
 reputation at the risk of treating on a matter which he does not 
 understand. 
 
 But to return to my purpose, I say not only that the Grecian 
 and basque letters are the same, but that the signification of 
 them is to be found in the basque language only, and that they 
 have no further relation or resemblance to those of the Phcenecian 
 or Hebrew alphabet, than what arises from their common origin 
 in the Euscaran. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Demonstration that the Greek Alphabet is derived from 
 the Basque. 
 
 Some persons have considered, and still consider as paradox- 
 ical, the assertion that each letter in the basque language has its 
 special signification and representation ; according to this theory, 
 say they, all languages may be explained in basque ; but this 
 mode of talking is deficient in philosophy. It is true that the 
 words of all languages are composed of small members or letters, 
 but it is not equally so, (even though these members may have 
 each its special signification furnished by nature,) that in the 
 formation of those languages, the rule thus afforded has been 
 adopted and observed with that scrupulous nicety which distin- 
 guished the basque; hence it is that in other languages the 
 signification of the members of a word conjunctively rarely cor- 
 respond to the sense in which the word is used, or is an exact 
 definition of the thing represented by it : I say rarely for it is 
 certain that amongst the languages of the confusion*, all of 
 which were derived immediately from the Euscaran, are to be 
 found some words having that property, and these have been 
 taken from our language. 
 
 a species of bird that often changes its residence — so that the author 
 here combated by Mr Erro merely hazards the assertion, that civilized 
 Greece had the alphabet of their barbarous ancestors. 
 * "Confusion" of languages, refers to the story of the tower of Babel- 
 
21 
 
 The very decisive examples from our alphabet which I shall 
 now expose, will not only satisfy and silence foiever all doubts, 
 but establish the fact hitherto unknown, that the Greek alphabet 
 is basque — or primitive Spanish. 
 
 A 
 The first letter in the Greek alphabet is the a, which they 
 call alpha, this being its name in the language from which it 
 was taken ; — amongst the Greeks this word alpha has no sort 
 of signification, it says nothing ; but amongst the Euscarans it is 
 an exact definition of its value, and is what nature intended it 
 to represent : it may have two significations according to two 
 distinct etymologies, but both quite appropriate to its repre- 
 sentation : — the first signification is a letter powerful, robust, 
 strong, from ala, power, — and fa or ba (which are the same as 
 we soon shall see) meaning profound extension; these dictions 
 united, say literally of power the profound extension, or which 
 is the same, very powerful, and in truth the A is the most pow- 
 erful of all the modulations, that by which a man gives most 
 force to his voice. The second signification is a letter which 
 denotes extension, dilatation, from ar, ara, any thing plain, 
 or extended, and the termination ba : the Euscaran language 
 makes frequent use of the letter in this last sense ; the substitu- 
 tion of the r soft, for Z is very common in our language, as for 
 example in the words Alaba for Araba, Galpe for Garpe, Gala- 
 tia for Garatia; and on the contrary of the soft r for / — thus 
 we say indifferently ulia or uria, ilia or iria, to signify a people 
 or country. 
 
 B. 
 
 The second letter in the Greek alphabet is B, — which they 
 call beta ; the etymology of this word is so apt, and so com- 
 mon its representation, that there is not a basque who does not 
 on the slightest consideration claim it as his own ; it is composed 
 of be — bea — something profound, low, — and of the local ter- 
 mination eta ; thus this letter in the Euscaran always denotes 
 profundity. Our ancestors to represent this modulation and 
 give an idea of its value, have left to us a sign, which has 
 been subsequently used reversed ; (see the plate,) — it repre- 
 sents a weight suspended to a cord, and what figure could be 
 invented to give us an idea of profundity more proper than that 
 of the instrument by which it is measured ; is it possible that 
 any one who sees this should assert that the Greek beta is not 
 basque ? The ancient basques represented by the same sign 
 
28 
 
 the modulations b, f, p, and this is the reason why the signifi- 
 cation of a basque word transferred into a foreign alphabet, is 
 the same whichever of these letters it may be written with, for 
 they have the same representation ; and though the Euscaran 
 oral language makes some distinction between them, yet our 
 ancestors to avoid confusion, established the rule of writing them 
 by the same sign, seeing that the value of them was nearly 
 equal, and consequently the use of them nearly indifferent ; 
 thus we say indiscriminately, the native of JVabara f of JYapara, 
 or of JVafara. 
 
 G. 
 The third letter is the G, which the Greeks call gamma, and 
 this is also the third sign of the primitive alphabet; the name is 
 pure basque, and is composed of gam, gama, which signifies 
 that which is above, high, as in the words, gam-bara, gamba- 
 ta, and of mi, mia, narrow ; thus the sign g in the basque al- 
 ways signifies height and narrowness. The inventor of the 
 art of writing appropriated to represent this sign the very apt 
 figure of a small ladder, (see the plate.) Nothing could 
 give a better idea of the modulation than that instrument by 
 which we ascend. The Euscarans yet preserve in their oral 
 alphabet the letter q, as in the words mesquiriz, amezquita, he. 
 but to represent this sound in writing, they use the letters gam- 
 ma and kapa ; it is therefore that I mention the q in this place, 
 it was a sign unknown to the ancient basques, but introduced 
 by the Romans in later ages, and without the least necessity. 
 
 D. 
 
 The fourth letter of the Greek is also the fourth sign of the 
 primitive alphabet, and called delta or deleta ; the modulation 
 d, in the syllabical composition of Euscaran words, denotes 
 multitude. The word is composed of de, de-a, or dia, which 
 signifies multitude, of le, lea, maker, causer, or former; and of 
 the local* termination eta, which together make of multitude the 
 
 * Local termination. It is very common in the basque language to termi- 
 nate words referring to place with eta ; — it may be well here to explain other 
 similar expressions used by the author \ — augmentative letter, means that the 
 letter ?n, added to a word, always expresses augmentation in the basque — in 
 the same way abundaniial letter means that u is the sign of abundance ; 
 characteristic of appellative means that a is an article appellative ; — a and ac 
 are very common terminations of nouns in the basque language, it is there- 
 lore that so many places in the French Pyrennes, and what is called the de- 
 partment of the Oironde (capital of which is Bordeaux) 'nave names ending 
 with ac, — these terminations arc but the postposition of the appellative 
 article ; for example, guizonis man, and guieona, the man. 
 
29 
 
 former ; that is to say, the letter which has the power and repre- 
 sentation of multitude. This is the definition and value of the 
 modulation, and herein we see the reason why the territory 
 laying between the mouths of the Nile has been called the 
 Delta from the first ages of the world ; it has not been so called 
 as has hitherto been generally supposed, on account of its form, 
 similar to the delta in the Greek, alphabet, but on account of 
 its very extraordinary fertility and the abundance of its pro- 
 ducts, as though we should say, country maker of multitudes 
 and abundance. 
 
 There is such a close affinity between this modulation, and 
 that of the t, that in the common use of the basque language, we 
 frequently take one for the other ; so our ancestors used proba- 
 bly a common figure to represent them, for after much inves- 
 tigation I have not been able to discover amongst any of the 
 monuments which I have examined, any special sign for the d. 
 
 E. 
 
 The fifth letter of the Greek alphabet is also the fifth sign 
 of the basque ; as the Greeks never had in their language the 
 pronunciation tsi, they never could receive the name etsila, 
 by which the Basques called the e. The word etsila means 
 that the vowel e denotes debility, extenuation, &tc. It is com- 
 posed of etsi, to consent — and ila, a thing dead ; that is, it is a 
 sign which represents the modulation almost dead of the 
 vowel e. 
 
 It denotes weakness, both in a moral and physical sense ; 
 when used in the sense of debility, the Basques represented 
 it by an angle of unequal sides with its point on the ground, 
 (see the plate,) manifesting in the weight of its long sides and 
 the smallness of its base, the danger of its losing its equilibri- 
 um and falling. The Greeks substituted the psi, for the tsi, 
 and so made of the basque etsila, epsila, or epsilon, by means 
 of the Greek termination on.* 
 
 CorZ. 
 The sixth letter of the Grecian is also the sixth of the prim- 
 itive alphabet, our modern c, which they czWzeta. This basque 
 
 * The author here observes in a note, that the name of this letter, more 
 changed than any other in the alphabet by the Greek inflexion, may also 
 have been derived from the primitive Aitz-ila, which the Greeks read FAz- 
 ila, and which signifies letter quite dead — that is, very weak letter. Be this 
 as it msy, the signification is the same, and explains that which nature gave 
 to its modulation in the composition of the language. 
 
30 
 
 word signifies a cutting letter, and is composed of ce, tea, cut 
 — and the local termination eta ; this is the signification which 
 nature gave to the modulation which this letter represents, and 
 is that which the basque language adopted in the composition 
 of its words. Our ancestors gave the most lively representa- 
 tion of its value by two signs, [see the plate.] The first 
 figure is that of a pruning knife, the second represents the se- 
 micircle which the teeth form, and with which in pronouncing 
 the c, we seem as though we should cut the tongue. 
 
 This modulation has also a representation in a double letter, 
 and then it signifies abundance ; our ancestors when they em- 
 ployed it in this sense, doubled the sign and formed of it sev- 
 eral others, as [see the plate.] The letter has two pronun- 
 ciations, one like the cha, in Spanish, and one like the soft cha, 
 in the French language; though they were both expressed in 
 writing by the same sign, they were differently pronounced by 
 the reader, as in Zacurra, a great dog, which name though al- 
 ways written with a Z, yet when applied to a small dog, was 
 read and pronounced chacurra. In some other words these 
 pronunciations were indifferently at the choice of the reader, 
 as in Zingara or chingara, a spark — Zimisia or cfiimista, the 
 lightning , this same variation in the pronunciation is still in use. 
 
 T. 
 
 The eighth letter of the Grecian, is the seventh sign of the 
 basque alphabet, called tita, (theta.) This name indicates the 
 value which nature affixed to the modulation t; the word tita 
 is pure basque, and signifies a thing very abundant at times, 
 but not continually so ; it is composed of the termination ti, tia, 
 which signifies abundance limited to certain times, as in sagas- 
 tia, the orchard, where every year, though not throughout the 
 whole year, there is abundance of apples ; and in arritia, a 
 space of land, not a quarry, but on which here and there is a 
 great abundance of stones ; for the same reason this termina- 
 tion ti-ta or ti-tia is the name given to the breast of a woman 
 when nursing, ; in truth it were impossible to present a more 
 perfect idea of the value of the modulation t, than by this 
 name ; there is nothing which can better represent this occasion- 
 al abundance, than the breast of a woman provided with nourish- 
 ment by nature herself, during the period of her nursing. The 
 inventor of the art of writing was not less judicious in the choice 
 of the sign which represents this letter, than in the name given to 
 it, — the figure is that of a woman's breast. [See plate] 
 
31 
 
 The Greeks gave to the ninth letter of their alphabet the same 
 name as our ancestors gave to the eighth sign of theirs, that is 
 iota. This sign had originally two significations, and still pre- 
 serves in the basque two different pronunciations ; one as i, and 
 the other as j. The Greeks, who never comprehended the 
 true nature of this difference, took the sign in only one accepta- 
 tion, and it is therefore that their alphabet is without the i pro- 
 per ; for as to their upsilon, it is and always has been an u ; if 
 it has been taken for our i this is not because the primitive 
 Spaniards did not make a distinction between the two signs, but 
 because in a great number of our w r ords they are used indis- 
 criminately, which led to the belief that the Spaniards had no 
 special sign for the third vowel, and that the sign of the u was 
 employed sometimes as one representation and sometimes for 
 the other : what may also very much have contributed to this 
 error, was the carelessness of our writers, who forgetful of the 
 wise principles which governed the composition of the alphabet, 
 gave into a loose practice of using indiscriminately the i and 
 the u, between which in .the origin there was a well marked 
 distinction ; this abusive custom transferred to Greece with our 
 alphabet, hence arose the difficulty of ascertaining the true value 
 of their upsilon, whether it was that of i or u. 
 
 To the letter i under the modulations, Ya, Ye, la, Io, our 
 ancestors gave the name of iota to designate the signification 
 affixed to them by nature ; it denotes the functions of the j to 
 be the expression of a shock, stroke, power, superiority, and 
 other synonimes of these, — it being composed of the verb io to 
 strike, attack, rise, elevate, and of the local termination eta. 
 
 When this letter had the modulation of a vowel, the basques 
 called it i or ia, to express its functions in the composition of 
 language ; it denotes whatever is sharp, pointed, subtile, fine, 
 and is called i — that is a rush — which plant thin and pointed 
 represents the value of this vowel. (See the plate.) 
 
 K. 
 
 The tenth letter of the Grecian alphabet is the ninth of the 
 basque, it is the Castillian k, called in Greek kapa ; as the Eu- 
 scaransdid not use for the representation of the B, P, F, more 
 than the single sign of B, it is therefore that amongst the na- 
 tions which have taken from them the names of the letters of 
 the alphabet, some have called this letter kaf or kafa as the 
 Jews, others kapa as the Greeks, and the Euscarans called it 
 kaba. -This variety does not affect its signification ; it always 
 
32 
 
 denotes privation, great want, defect, contempt; laba is soften- 
 ed into gaba, so we call the night because it deprives us of light 
 and of the sight of objects ; gaba is a contraction of galea a 
 negative expression equivalent to " without," as doucgabea, 
 without goodness, that is bad. 
 
 The inventor of the art of writing to represent this letter, gave 
 us the figure of a yoke or collar in two different positions, (see 
 the plate,) and could any thing be imagined better suited to 
 convey the idea of a great want or privation than that of the 
 instrument invented by man to deprive of his liberty and reduce 
 to servitude an animal made free by nature. Very shortly after 
 the creation of man it became necessary for him to resort to the 
 assistance of the brute animals for the cultivation of the earth, 
 but to this end it was necessary to reduce to obedience animals 
 whose strongest instinct was perfect independence. It is to be 
 presumed that his first experiments were made on single animals, 
 whether the horse, or horned animal, and it was not till after he 
 had succeeded with one, that he thought of yoking pairs ; thus 
 we see that the yoke here represented is for a single neck ; the 
 invention of writing then was anterior to the' use of the double 
 yoke ; hence another argument in favor of the very high anti- 
 quity of this art. 
 
 * L. 
 
 The eleventh letter of the Grecian is the tenth sign of the 
 primitive alphabet, called Lambda or Lameda, corresponding to 
 the Castillian L; this is a basque word denoting precisely the 
 value which nature gave to the modulation /, and that which it 
 has in the Euscaran language ; it is composed of la, a thing 
 benumbed, adherent ; of the augmentative letter m, and of 
 eda, a thing extended ; thus this letter denotes torpor, fatigue, 
 immobility; our ancestors to represent this modulation gave to 
 it the very appropriate sign of a hoe, (see the plate,) for there 
 is not any thing which fatigues a man more than labor, and in 
 the first ages of the world when the alphabet was invented, 
 there was no other labor than agriculture ; hence this sign was 
 the most appropriate, and is another proof of the very high an- 
 tiquity of the basque writing. The double L, (11) which is 
 very common in the oral alphabet of the basque language, has 
 not any special sign to represent it, for it is a modulation so little 
 necessary that it is wholly warning in several dialects, as in those 
 of Laburtania and the Pyrenean Navarre ; the i before or alter 
 the I gives to us precisely the value of the // — thus in one dialect 
 
S3 
 
 tlletza, abundance of wool, is ilietza in another; oilua, a hen, 
 in one dialect, is ollua in the other. 
 
 M. 
 
 The twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet and the eleventh of 
 the basque, is called mi, equivalent to our m : mi or mia signi- 
 fies tender, flexible, delicate, and by metaphor the tongue ; as 
 it is by the tongue that we give utterance and extension to our 
 ideas, hence the modulation m, is called tongue, according to 
 the signification which nature gave to it in our idiom, — that is 
 the augmenting property. Our ancestors gave to this modulation 
 for a sign, the form of the lips when the mouth is suddenly 
 closed, that being the natural position of them when this letter 
 is pronounced. (See the plate.) 
 
 N. 
 
 The thirteenth letter of the Greek, which is the twelfth of the 
 primitive alphabet, corresponds to our common n ; ni m the 
 basque signifies ascent rising in a point, as is seen in the words 
 muniain, ernio, ernani, &c. ; it also denotes suavity, softness, and 
 therefore when we caress infants we say ninia, ninichua, and we 
 even make a distinction with this letter in our manner of address- 
 ing men and women, thus we say toma with a harsh t, to the man, 
 and to the woman noma with the soft n. The sign originally 
 appropriated to this modulation was a crook, which was after- 
 wards changed by making its bends angular — but both signs are 
 found indiscriminately employed in the basque language. (See 
 the plate.) 
 
 Shortly after the creation of man he found himself obliged to 
 seek subsistence for himself and companion ; this necessity, and 
 the desire of seeing and examining closely the distant objects 
 of his attention and admiration, induced him to make long and 
 wearisome and frequent excursions from his habitation ; it was 
 in climbing the mountains that he could best observe all the 
 beauties of nature spread before him, he must have soon found 
 the assistance which he might derive from a staff; the first form of 
 this may have been simple, but he must have quickly perceived 
 the advantages of a crook, as well to assist him in his ascent, as to 
 draw within the reach of his hands the branches of trees produ- 
 cing fruits for his nourishment : the consonant N being in- 
 tended by nature to represent an ascent, or gentle mounting of 
 a hill, as is observed in the composition of the basque idiom, 
 hence the inventor of writing very properly applied as the best 
 sign of its value a crook, which had its origin from the fatigue 
 5 
 
34 
 
 which man experienced principally in ascending mountains. 
 To this sign also belongs the n (n liquid) which is very com- 
 mon in the oral alphabet of our language ; our ancestors did not 
 employ any special sign to represent this modulation, nor was 
 it necessary to do so.; like the double /, there are several of our 
 dialects in which it is scarcely used ; the vowel i either prece- 
 ding or following n, makes the exact effect of n (n liquid) in the 
 dialects wherein it is used — thus oina for ona, gania or gaina 
 for gana. These observations on the double I and liquid n, and 
 the oriental character which prevails in the dialects of Laburta- 
 nia, and the Pyrenean Navarre, by its many aspirations, lead 
 me to believe that dialect to have been the oldest in our lan- 
 guage, or at least that which was most generally used in the 
 primitive world when the alphabet was formed. 
 
 R. 
 
 The Greeks call the seventeenth letter of their alphabet Ro, 
 and this is the thirteenth sign in the primitive, corresponding to 
 our Castillian r, (rough.) Though the basque write Ro, they 
 pronounce it with the antiposition of the soft e, for the purpose 
 of rendering the r less harsh at the commencement of a word 5 
 so they pronounce erro the root (foot) of a mountain, distin- 
 guished from sustraria which signifies any vegetable root what- 
 ever ; as the foot of a mountain is generally rough or uneven 
 ground, it is therefore that the Euscarans gave to the modula- 
 tion r which is naturally so harsh in the pronunciation, the name 
 of ro or erro, to denote whatever was rough, harsh and painful; 
 and in this sense it is employed in the Euscaran. This etymolo- 
 gy does not admit of a doubt ; it is evident in the rugged situation 
 oMhe ancient palace of Cabo de Armeria de Erro, the seat of 
 my family, and in the valley of Erro, formed by the steep, craggy 
 sides of the Pyrennes. The sign which represents this modu- 
 lation is a knife or dagger, — the use of this instrument to sepa- 
 rate any thing into pieces or to transfix, indicates the roughness 
 of this letter; amongst other signs this letter has also that of an 
 axe, which from the roughness of its stroke is quite significative. 
 The Euscarans had a particular sign to represent the double r, 
 which is no other than two of the single ?*'s joined back to back, 
 the middle line being in common; sometimes also it is formed 
 in the same way, but the single line left out. (See the plate.) 
 
 S. 
 The eighteenth letter of the Grecian is the fourteenth sign of 
 the Euscaran alphabet, called sugma, and corresponds to our 
 
35 
 
 Castillian s; this basque name is composed of the basque word 
 suga, a snake, and me, men, flexible, fine, subtile ; that is to 
 say, the modulation s received from nature for the composition 
 of the idiom the representation of the properties of this reptile, 
 and it therefore denotes, pressing, rubbing, dragging, and any 
 thing flexible, subtile ; the inventor of writing therefore gave us 
 to represent this consonant the figure of a snake, (see the plate,) 
 and thus we find it employed in our basque inscriptions, and 
 amongst the signs of the original Greek alphabet. 
 
 U. 
 
 The twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet is the fifteenth 
 sign of the basque, corresponding to our Castillian u. I have 
 already observed that the Greeks had not our pronunciation ts, 
 and therefore not being able to pronounce this sign as the 
 basque utsilun, they substituted their pronunciation ps as most 
 nearly approaching it, and called the letter vpsilon ; since the 
 Greeks had not the pronunciation ts, nor had the basques the 
 pronunciation ps, this variation, though slight, was indispensa- 
 ble in adopting a name so expressive of the value of its sign. 
 
 Utsilun, signifies that the vowel u denotes void, obscure hol- 
 lowness ; that is, profound hollowness, for the depth of cavities 
 renders them obscure : the word is composed of uts — utsa, 
 void or cavit}', and ilun — iluna, obscure : as the Euscarans 
 frequently substituted the u for the i, (and this practice is still 
 continued) as in ulcea, a nail, for ilcea, uria, the people, for 
 iria, and on the contrary the i for the u, as in Jaincoa for 
 Jaungoicoa, he, thence, as before observed, the Greeks sup- 
 pose that this sign utsilun, represented both the u and the t. 
 
 The inventor ot the alphabet left us two signs to represent 
 the value of the modulation u, both admirably adapted to it; — 
 the first, that of a pitch fork of three prongs, an instrument of 
 agriculture used to make hollows* in the cocks of hay ; the 
 second, is that of another species of fork, two pronged, used 
 in a similar way for corn in stacks, or in the barn. (See the 
 plate.) Thus is made evident, by the form of the last sign, the 
 error which has hitherto prevailed, that the y was invented by 
 the Greeks ; it is undoubtedly the u Spanish, or more properly 
 speaking, oriental, brought to Spain and taken from thence by 
 the Greeks. Even though this fact were not established as it 
 
 * " To make hollows," that is, so as not to leave it in compact masses ; but 
 admitting the air to circulate, and thus preventing the hay from rotting by 
 moisture. 
 
36 
 
 is, by the peculiar adaptation of the sign to its purpose, a con- 
 clusive argument in its favor exists in a sepulchral stone at 
 Iglesuela in Arragon, the legend on which is in the basque 
 language and characters ; and there the y is employed even in 
 the value of i. 
 
 O. 
 
 The twenty fourth, and last letter of the Greek alphabet, 
 called omega, is the sixteenth sign of the Euscaran, and cor- 
 responds to the Castillian o. Omega is a basque word, signi- 
 fying a rough though round height, and is composed of o, oa, 
 high, round ; of me, mea, any thing soft or delicate, and of the 
 negative ga — (corresponding to our ivithout) — these, taken to- 
 gether, signify that the letter o denotes any thing high, round 
 and rough, or little smooth ; the sign which represents this letter 
 under those qualities, is one the angles of which represent the 
 roughness of the modulation, as the smoothness and regularity 
 of this other sign, o, conveys the idea of a smooth elevation. 
 [See the plate.] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Application of the Preceding Observations. 
 
 These are the sixteen letters of the original Greek alphabet, 
 taken from the sixteen signs of the Euscaran ; carried to 
 Greece, and forgotten in Spain, they have remained for ages 
 unknown to their legitimate proprietors. This is the wisely 
 constructed alphabet of our ancestors, that composition of 
 extraordinary genius, transferring to the names of the signs, the 
 observations made on the value which nature gave to the modu- 
 lations of the voice. Let this demonstration be well examined 
 by the learned, and Jet them then pronounce whether it be 
 possible still to maintain the historical dogma as an infallible 
 truth, that the Greek alphabet is of Phoenecian origin. 
 
 This discovery throws light on languages in genera], to what 
 perfection may not several of them be brought, if in the forma- 
 tion of their words, the same rule of nature be observed as the 
 
37 
 
 inventors of the art of writing have applied to the smallest 
 members of words in the signs of our alphabet ? 
 
 The discordance which is to be observed in historical narra- 
 tives as to the Greek alphabet is of itself a sufficient evi- 
 dence, that the writers of that nation deserve but little confi- 
 dence in what they say as to the number of the letters which 
 have been added to that alphabet, and as to the authors of the 
 invention. 
 
 Nor is it surprising that a nation ignorant as to the origin of 
 its alphabet, should also be ignorant as to which were the prim- 
 itive letters of it, and which those which were subsequently 
 added ; particularly if the additions were made, as it is probable 
 that they were, soon after the original alphabet was carried to 
 Greece. Relative to the first additions made, authors are 
 totally at variance, some attributing them to Palamedes and 
 some to Epicarmus. The Greeks, always seeking to assume 
 as their own^the honor belonging to other nations, did not fail 
 to appropriate to themselves some part at least, of the credit of 
 this invention, and as they could not deny the foreign origin of 
 their primitive letters, they desired at least to claim the merit of 
 the additions ; but being wholly ignorant of the idiom to which 
 the names of their letters belonged, without a knowledge of 
 which an accurate distinction between the original and added 
 letters was impossible, they fell into confusion — mistaking some- 
 times the primitive for the added, and at others the added for 
 the primitive. Thus Aristotle enumerating the sixteen primi- 
 tive letters, places amongst them pi, tau and fi, which are in 
 fact added letters, and have not any relation to the primitive 
 alphabet, which has no special signs to represent them, they 
 being included in the signs beta and tita. Amongst the four 
 letters of the first addition made by Palamedes or Epicarmus, 
 is placed the tita, and in the second addition, attributed to 
 Simonides, the zeta and omega ; but 1 have made it perfectly 
 evident that these signs are of the basque alphabet, of course 
 they are not of the added letters, and much less of Grecian in- 
 vention 5 for as the primitive alphabet was much anterior to Pala- 
 medes, Epicarmus and Simonides, and as the names of these 
 signs are basque, and exact definitions of the value of the 
 modulations which they represent, those names cannot have 
 been given by the Greeks, who were always ignorant of the 
 basque idiom ; besides, had the invention of the signs been 
 theirs, they had probably given to them Grecian and not for- 
 eign appellations. 
 
38 
 
 The original letters'then of the Greek alphabet, represented 
 by sixteen signs of the Euscaran, were these — A, B, G, D, 
 E, Z, T, J, K, L, M, N, R, S, U, O— comprehending the 
 value of the twenty eight letters of the basque oral alphabet;* 
 that is of twenty four common letters, and the n (liquid), 11 
 (double 1,) tza, and tsa. The letters added to the Greek al- 
 phabet were eight, viz : oci, little o, (omicron) pi, tau, Ji, chi, 
 psi, and h (eta) — though these may be called unions rather 
 than additions, since they are but signs comprehending each 
 the pronunciation of two or more of the original letters. But 
 putting aside the discussion as to the epoch when these addi- 
 tions were made, a point of no great importance, it is to be 
 observed that the signs which represent these additions are 
 wholly Euscaran ; the % (xi) corresponds to one of the signs 
 of our Z, composed as a double letter of two c's — the omi- 
 cron is the basque o in one of its significations — the pi corres- 
 ponds to one of the signs of the gamma, the tau to one of those 
 which represent the iita, xheji to one of the signs which repre- 
 sent the beta — the chi is but the sound of the kapa in this sign 
 X, which is one of those representing the Z, and the psi is one 
 of the signs of the utsilun and of the iota.f 
 
 These observations may serve to undeceive those who have 
 been disposed to receive historical dogmas from Grecian 
 writers, and to submit to such frail authority the operations of 
 reason and the instruction of their own intellects. 
 
 * Twenty four common letters of the basque oral alphabet. This requires 
 explanation ; it means that the sixteen written letters as now used in con- 
 versation, are made to comprehend the expression of the twenty four Cas- 
 tillian — called " common letters." 
 
 fThe author has omitted the H, (eta) which is evidently one of the signs 
 of the basque Etsila. ' 
 
The primitive alp ha tut <£- the correspondence l?e* 
 tween the basque signs as they are fonncLon the 
 
 mcst an cient m o/tunients of Spain dc the eemmen letters. 
 
 i \ nurum 
 Letters. 
 
 3 lames 
 
 of the 
 Greek 
 Letters 
 
 Ounces 
 er'tke 
 primitive 
 
 "basque, 'u/ru,- 
 
 Signs 
 
 at 'the 
 t J rim- 
 
 itive 
 
 Variations of the 
 signs subsequently 
 
 introduced. 
 
 A 
 
 Alfa. 
 
 Alfa. 
 
 A. 
 
 Hi.ax./ 
 
 KEP. 
 
 J&i'ta 
 
 J*)eta 
 
 11 
 
 ?.6>.&.^^&,4$>.£4.(l) 
 
 G. 
 
 Gamma 
 
 Gamma 
 
 B. 
 
 r.p.j.A. 
 
 D 
 
 Delta 
 
 Xettaoaeirta 
 
 
 
 E 
 
 'Epsilon 
 
 Etsila 
 
 v/l. 
 
 HMfMS. 
 
 Co.Z 
 
 Zdta 
 
 Zeta 
 
 S\C. 
 
 <.^.X.X.<<Ai><LX. 
 
 T 
 
 Jlta 
 
 Ma 
 
 Q. 
 
 O.O.T.O. 
 
 J I 
 
 Iota 
 
 I.Iota 
 
 r.t. 
 
 f.rY.-H.r.r.yx. 
 
 X 
 
 Kapa 
 
 Kapa 
 
 K. 
 
 R 
 
 X 
 
 Lamda 
 
 Lameda 
 
 r. 
 
 <<X.A. 
 
 JVI 
 
 Mi 
 
 Mi 
 
 , — 
 
 M. 
 
 1ST 
 
 JK 
 
 JYi 
 
 ft 
 
 rA'.A.A. 
 
 31 
 
 Jio 
 
 Jlo 
 
 M?R 
 
 P. KM)., ft.*. 
 
 S 
 
 Siyma 
 
 ditama 
 
 I 
 
 *.S. 
 
 TJ 
 
 Upjifan 
 
 TStsilun, 
 
 f . Y. 
 
 'H.l f.4. 
 
 O 
 
 Omega 
 
 Omeaa 
 
 O.O. 
 
 
 Ten file Cutis ZitHt 
 
PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the Attempts of some Learned Men to discover the Primitive 
 Language ; and on the singular Character and Perfection 
 of that Language. 
 
 I undertake a work, the argument of which traversing the 
 obscurity of ages wholly unknown to history, establishes the 
 origin of the religion, language, and scientific opinions of men 
 in the first periods of the creation. The comparative recent 
 date of all records, the fables of all nations, and the darkness 
 which envelopes the formation of societies after the dispersion, 
 would appear to be insuperable obstacles to my success. The 
 works of Zoroaster, Berosus, Enos, Sanconiaton, and others, 
 cited as the most ancient, have against their claim to authen- 
 ticity strong presumptions rendering them inadmissible as au- 
 thorities. The relations of the sacred historian Moses, limited 
 to the principal purpose of his mission, leave great voids for 
 research, and do not afford to my investigation those aids which 
 might, otherwise be derived from the faith to which such a 
 highly gifted writer is entitled.* 
 
 *As the author everywhere speaks of Moses in terms of orthodox respect, 
 he is entitled in this place to notice the insufficiency or incompleteness of his 
 historical relation, a reserve which cannot be censured even by Jews. 
 Some christian philosophers considering that Moses was the leader of an 
 ignorant and credulous people, have not hesitated to view him rather as a 
 wise politician than an inspired legislator and historian ; one of these, treat- 
 ing of the hebdominal feasts of the Jews which he shows to have been regu- 
 lated by an ancient apocalyptical system, charges Moses with having studiously 
 concealed the origin of them : " Le Sabat-etoit selon les apparences ante- 
 rieur a ce legislateur" — he adds, in conclusion, " Le bible ne suffit point 
 pour connoitie les juifs leur Jablts prouvent leur antiquite — autaut que leur 
 histoiie. 
 
40 
 
 Nevertheless these apparently insurmountable difficulties are 
 to be overcome by a judicious and philosophical criticism; nor 
 is there probably an argument better supported by undeniable 
 documents, than this which many of the learned have qualified 
 as untenable : some of them however, have in defiance of all 
 discouragement, endeavored to discover events previous to the 
 epochs of history, and to examine the origin of societies and 
 languages in the first ages of the world : convinced that no 
 light could be derived from the histories of even the most 
 ancient people on account of the monstrous fables with which 
 they are disfigured, and the propensity to the marvellous which 
 characterized the ^Egyptians as well as the Greeks, they have 
 resorted to the examination of idioms, which are living archives, 
 carrying in the very construction of their words, important 
 information as to the state of intellectual cultivation in those 
 times which are beyond the reach of examination by any other 
 means. The theories which have been formed in pursuit of 
 this object have been various; some have supposed that the 
 primitive language was an element in the constitution of man, 
 belonging necessarily to the faculty of speech by which he is 
 distinguished ; so far this was philosophic ; but not so the 
 method taken by Psameticus king of -Egypt (according to 
 Herodotus) to discover this primitive language in two children 
 brought up in a forest and kept from all human intercourse. 
 The common pretension of finding the man of nature in a sav- 
 age state, is founded upon very erroneous ideas of nature ;* 
 it is like looking for the perfection of fruit on the trees of the 
 forest, to conclude that savages the furthest removed from civ- 
 ilization, living in disorder, and without any control of their 
 passions, are most approximate to the system of nature. 
 Though it is quite evident that man cannot live alone, that 
 
 *A philosophical view of the Deluge adds force to this opinion of Mr 
 Erro. It maybe reasonably presumed, I think, that the " savage slate''' did 
 not exist before, but was the natural result of that great calamity. It is 
 probable that the destruction produced by that commotion of nature was more 
 complete in some places than in others, and the effects of it therefore as well 
 on the social character of the inhabitants of the earth as on the earth itself, 
 has been more or less durable in the same degree, and hence, that the savage 
 state which we are pleased to call a " state of nature," still exists in many 
 parts of the world. Or though it is certain that the whole earth has been 
 deluged, it is possible that ihere has never been one universal deluge ; but 
 that portions only of the earth have been inundated, at different epochs : or 
 finally this still existing " savage state" may be attributed to the dispersion, 
 by those who believe in the story of Babel ; and to this hypothesis, the 
 reasoning of the author (in the 3d chapter) to show how the precepts of 
 the primitive idiom were lost is in part applicable. 
 
41 
 
 there is a chain of necessities belonging to his very constitution 
 which teach him that he was created for society ; yet there are 
 some persons who would persuade us that the more he advances 
 in this natural order, the further he advances towards a state of 
 imperfection and degradation ! 
 
 Man is intended by nature to be a social animal, he is 
 endowed with all the faculties necessary to the perfection of this 
 plan ; those faculties had not been given to him had the Creator 
 intended him for the savage state: the more then the cultivation 
 of his intellect and the civilization of his habits, the more is he 
 the man of nature. The language w 7 hich two children aban- 
 doned in a forest would form, would not be the idiom of nature, 
 it would scarcely be a rational language, it would be an idiom 
 of interjections, to express the animal wants. Quintilian re- 
 lating a similar experiment of children left in a desert, tells us 
 that though they could articulate some words they were without 
 the faculty of speech.* 
 
 Other philosophers, on the supposition that the primitive lan- 
 guage may yet be a living language, have directed their inqui- 
 ries to certain existing idioms with the hope of discovering innate 
 proofs of their originalness ; and though some of these learned 
 men have obstinately persisted in endeavors to support their 
 systems by violating all laws of etymology, others more reason- 
 able, having brought down their discoveries to certain epochs 
 where all further light has been wanting, have prudently aban- 
 doned the object. Others again, and at their head the great 
 Plato, have assumed as the basis of their speculations princi- 
 ples more general and philosophic. ; observing that the con- 
 struction of language is not a work of caprice, but that it is the 
 result of a certain disposition of the organs of speech, and of 
 the mechanism of the voice applied by the imperious power of 
 nature to the representation of the qualities of objects, they 
 sought in all languages for some common and general element- 
 ary characters, and then by tracing the derivations of one from 
 the other, they expected to find the primitive language by the 
 modulations of the voice in what they have conceived to be ru- 
 diments. These philosophers approached the true method, and 
 if they had confined themselves to the examination of nature in 
 fixing the exact value belonging to each modulation of the voice, 
 they had doubtless arrived at some satisfactory results. This 
 
 *Quint: Lib. x, ch. 1. Infantes a mutuis nutricibus jussu regum in soli- 
 tudine educati, etiam si verba quoedam emisisse traduntur tamen loquendi 
 facilitate caruerunt, (that is to say, of expressing thoughts.) 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 great advance towards the discovery of the primitive language, 
 afforded hopes of final success, hut philosophy has not made any 
 progress in perfectionating and consolidating the important though 
 imperfect notions announced hy Plato ; neither Publius Nigi- 
 diusand the ancient grammarians, nor our modern philosophers, 
 have done more than adopt and generalize his principles, so 
 that it may be safely asserted that during.these past ages, scarce- 
 ly any progress has been made in this branch of science. Plato, 
 though a philosopher, was a Greek, and has left us in this, as 
 well as in some other of his writings, proofs of his insincerity ; 
 he was convinced of the truth which he announced, that 
 the modulations of the voice had special significations, repre- 
 senting signs which united the idiom with nature ; but this dis- 
 covery which he claimed, was not his own ; he became ac- 
 quainted with it during his travels, or adopted it from those who 
 brought it from the East, where such a tradition as to the pri- 
 mitive language had been preserved, as well as the principles 
 of the numeral philosophy, of which Pythagoras claimed the 
 invention, in the same way also concealing their true origin. 
 If a philosophical examination had led Plato to the discovery 
 of the plan which he published, and to be convinced, as he 
 says, that amongst the modulations of the human voice, the r 
 enters into words as a note of movement ; that the i denotes 
 something subtile and penetrating; the I stupor, and that the d 
 and t signify detention and restraint, all indubitable truths; he 
 had then also observed by the same rule, the signification of 
 all the other modulations ; he had reasoned differently, and the 
 arguments of his Cratilus had been less metaphysical and more 
 persuasive : he had then corrected his Greek alphabet, reduc- 
 ing it to sixteen elements, and would have presented in the sy- 
 nopsis of its significations a small group of signs, but sufficient 
 in their combinations to represent all the objects of nature char- 
 acterized by their several attributes. His Cratilus shows that 
 his philosophy had done much in support of the plan which he 
 announced, hut it also affords demonstration that this plan was 
 not the production of his own genius. The remains of the sch 
 entific opinions of the primitive world captivated his great 
 mind ; he saw their connexion wrh nature, but not having re- 
 ceived them in all the purity and perfection of their origin, his 
 Cratilus has in it the same confusion of ideas as are to be found 
 in his Tirneus. 
 
 Every system which is not supported and confirmed by some 
 truths falls by reason of its novelty. The elements of speech 
 
43 
 
 are really in nature, therein they have their signification ; and 
 though it is not denied that a powerful and perspicacious intel- 
 lect may discover those elements, an attempt to do so will 
 be always considered as a mere chimera when it meets with 
 insuperable obstacles in its outset, as happened to Plato's ex- 
 periment on the Greek language. Thus, though the system of 
 Plato is now produced as evidence in what I believe to have 
 been the primitive language, it was for many ages held to be a 
 theory more brilliant than solid. 
 
 Certainly, had Plato, or any of the philosophers who after 
 him have undertaken to examine this question, met with the 
 only idiom the elements of which have been dictated by nature, 
 they had been able to develope the system in a satisfactory 
 method ; it has been the want of that guide that has bewildered 
 them, so as to leave us more struck with the beauty than with 
 the practicability of their plan. 
 
 The primitive idiom can be no other than that which has its 
 origin in nature ; the faculty of speech must have its elements, 
 as all things have their principles ; these are not mere acci- 
 dents in the general order of the universe, nor were the modu- 
 lations of the voice arbitrary in language, till man began to disa- 
 vow and to commit violence on the laws of nature. 
 
 The primitive idiom infused by the Creator must have been 
 equal in perfection to all his other works, and have been inter- 
 woven with all the harmonies of nature. Whoever examines 
 with attention the admirable construction of the organs of speech, 
 and observes their mechanical action in the various and nicely 
 expressive modulations of the voice, so precisely calculated 
 for the most distinct representation of all ideas to be conveyed 
 by speech, will acknowledge that this wonderful organization 
 cannot be the result of accident, but that it must belong to the 
 all-wise dispositions of the Supreme Power in the creation of 
 man ; and it is also presumable that the infused idiom was not 
 limited to the expression of the principal wants of man in a 
 rude state, but that it embraced all the knowledge which was 
 necessary to establish his supremacy over all other created 
 beings :* though this last supposition be not admissible, yet 
 it will be allowed that the observations which the first man must 
 
 * Though the author in this place allows that his hypothesis may not be 
 admitted even as a probability, yet it certainly cannot be disputed by those 
 who believe that God brought all the animals before Adam that he might Dame 
 them ; and this immediately after the creation, long before Adam could have 
 studied the philosophy of his language ; this argument is fully developed in 
 the next chapter. 
 
44 
 
 have made on the idiom with which he was gifted, must have 
 led him to a comprehension of its elements, so as to enable 
 him to adapt to all things names corresponding to those ele- 
 ments ; he must have observed for example in pronouncing the 
 r, a violent vibration of the tongue and a roughness of sound, 
 from whence he must have concluded that this modulation was 
 intended to express in the composition of words, harshness and 
 movement, and so on as regards the other modulations. Man 
 thus instructed by his observation (if his knowledge was not in- 
 fused as is most probable)in the signification of the various 
 modulations, took of them those which were necessary to ex- 
 press each object which he desired to represent ; thus for ex- 
 ample, when he gave a name to a stone, seeing that its qualities 
 were strength and roughness, he took the modulation a to re- 
 present the first quality, and rr to represent the second, and 
 called it, a-rr ; to express altitude simply, he took the o ; if 
 pointed, he added the i; and if the height thus described was 
 remarkable for its extraordinary mass, then to distinguish it 
 from those which were near to it, he added another 0, and 
 called it o-ri-o.* In this manner the first man must have pro- 
 ceeded in giving to things names suitable to their exterior qual- 
 ities or constitutive properties. Plato says that he who first 
 gave names to things must have been more than human, for 
 seeing that the true essence of the name is to represent the 
 qualities of the thing to which it is applied, he who so applied it 
 must necessarily have known all the qualities of things ; he 
 said also, that the names of things existed in nature. Publius 
 Nigidius expresses in substance the same opinion. f This truth 
 which can only be proved by the primitive idiom, with which 
 these philosophers were not acquainted, they must have re- 
 ceived by tradition, and must have adopted from the strong im- 
 pression which it made on their minds. 
 
 Many of the learned have supposed that the primitive lan- 
 guage of the human race must have been rude and imperfect, 
 since in the beginning but a few words were necessary to ex- 
 press the then limited wants of man. This is a gross unphilo- 
 sophical error ; the greater or lesser number of man's necessi- 
 ties could not have had any degree of influence on the 
 formation of his idiom; a language may be as perfect as I 
 
 * This is the name of a mountain in the Pyrennes, having precisely the 
 characteristics here specified ; it is called the " Pico de orio." 
 
 \ As cited by Aulus Gillius. " Nomina verbaque non posita fortuito sed 
 (madam vi et ratione naturae." 
 
45 
 
 suppose the first to have been, without being rich ; perfection 
 results from the syntax and mechanism of a language, and its 
 riches is in the abundance of its words ; these are formed in 
 proportion as the intellectual acquirements of man are extend- 
 ed. Perfect languages are but rare, copious languages are 
 many ; the riches of the first kind are permanent, those of the 
 latter are transient; for the words of the first being definitions 
 of the constitutive properties of the signs which they represent, 
 become an indelible record for ages, even though the idiom to 
 which they belong be lost ; whereas the words of the second 
 being merely conventional, are forgotten with the objects or the 
 science to which they refer, even though the idiom to which 
 they belong may yet remain in use. Had those who have sup- 
 posed the primitive language to have been imperfect, meditated 
 with philosophical attention on the first epochs of the creation, 
 they would have seen, that though those necessities of man 
 which belong to the mere conservation of his existence may 
 have been but few, those of his will must have been very 
 numerous : — the magnificent spectacle of all nature laid open to 
 his observation, must have furnished him with an infinity of 
 ideas and comparisons which in conversation with his partner 
 must have developed the resources of his language ; and even 
 on the supposition that this language was not infused by the 
 Creator, the mere fact that man was created adult, and conse- 
 quently in possession of all his rational faculties, and thus capa- 
 ble of comparing and discussing, suffices to prove the absurdity 
 of the opinion referred to. Man came perfect from the hands 
 of his Creator ; his mind altogether free from those inexact 
 ideas and absurd pre-occupations which we derive from our 
 education, and which embarrass our intellectual progress, he 
 was able to profit fully by the instructions of the nature with 
 which he was surrounded ; at that period there had not inter- 
 posed between nature and man that dense cloud of prejudice 
 which his perversity has produced, and which now scarcely 
 permits him to discern the most obvious and simple truths, in 
 the confusion produced by his chemical instruments, his physi- 
 cal machines, his mathematical calculations, and his systems 
 full of abstractions and contradictions. Nature, always rich, 
 but in her operations simple, offered to the first man more 
 copious and useful truths, than now after so many ages, are 
 obtainable by the presumption of our pompous doctors most 
 commonly leading their disciples through empty theories into 
 the mazes of error. 
 
4G 
 
 I do not, however, pretend to say that if man had been 
 obliged to form his own language he would have made it as 
 perfect as is the primitive language ; but certainly he would not 
 have formed one of rough, gross interjections, and destitute of 
 syntax as has been supposed ; to whatever object he gave a 
 name, this had its qualities, as handsome or otherwise, great or 
 small, soft or hard, hence the adjective ; for this object he must 
 have conceived some action, hence the verb ; this action must 
 have had relation to the past, the present or the future, hence 
 the tense. His conceptions must also have arisen in the proper 
 order of nature, thus the substantive must have preceded the 
 adjective, because the quality cannot exist without the subject ; 
 matter preceded form, for form cannot exist without matter, and 
 so as to the other parts of speech ; guided then by these just 
 rules of nature, man cannot but have used a rational language 
 infinitely more perfect than that which some philosophers have 
 attributed to him. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Primitive Language was inspired by the Creator and not 
 formed by Man. 
 
 The Gentile writers who have desired to say something about 
 the creation of man, have attributed to mere chance that won- 
 derful work ; they have said that our race originated in a sudden 
 production of a multitude of individuals at the same moment, 
 and in all parts of the earth, by a " certain modification" which 
 it received of a " certain unknown influence." It is evident 
 that if such a mode of reasoning be admitted for the explana- 
 tion of phenomena, there is not an absurdity which may not be 
 made an established doctrine, or a difficulty which does not 
 admit of an easy solution. It must be considered then as a 
 mere delirium of the imagination, which obscures the reason, 
 and which can only be assimilated to the extravagant concep- 
 tions of the poet who attributes the peopling of the earth to 
 the stones of Deucalion.* For a time, however, this prepos- 
 
 * Virgil 1. Georg. Quo tempore primum 
 
 Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem 
 Unde homines nati, durum genus. 
 
47 
 
 terous doctrine had its followers, and these maintained that the 
 race of man so generated, was without the faculty of speech, 
 but that compelled by necessity, he afterwards found means of 
 giving utterance to a certain number of sounds expressive of 
 his wants ; Diodorus, Cicero, and Horace, amongst others 
 seem to have countenanced this«opinion, carried away doubtless 
 by the torrent of general opinion ; or influenced by that of some 
 philosophers who preceded them, more especially by the wri- 
 tings of Lucretius.* 
 
 But we must reject all such unphilosophical theories as being 
 opposed to the plan of nature, — we must consider man to have 
 been created adult, and endowed with all the qualities necessary 
 for the purposes for which he was created. This view of his 
 origin is not only conformable to scripture, but it is the only 
 one which can be admitted in sound reasoning. The works of 
 the creation were all made perfect, each in its kind, it is not to 
 be supposed that man was an exception ; to say that he was a 
 savage, destitute of rationality, is not only to degrade the most 
 noble of the works of God, but to question the wisdom of the 
 Creator. The extension of our intellectual power, the delicacy 
 of our sensation, the sublimity of our imagination, the perspica- 
 city of all our faculties, indicate that there is a state of perfec- 
 tion natural to man as well as to every other portion of the 
 creation, and it is not to be imagined that God made the prin- 
 ciple and origin of this species incomplete, withholding from it 
 those perfections with which he so abundantly endowed all the 
 others. 
 
 Presuming then that man was created with the full possess- 
 ion and exercise of all his faculties, it is to be considered whether 
 amongst his endowments was a language completely formed, 
 or whether he formed it himself by means of the faculty which 
 he found to be in the harmonious mechanism of the organs of 
 his speech, and under the direction of nature giving a special 
 signification to each sound of the voice : those who adopt the 
 second opinion, contend that as all the physical faculties of man 
 are complete, that he sees, hears, and moves, by the effect of 
 his mere will, — so in the same way the oral mechanism being 
 made to give utterance to sounds, there was not any necessity 
 for an infused idiom to enable him to express his wants ; the 
 aptitude of his organs required only the exercise of his will to 
 produce the full exercise of their functions. 
 
 • Ac varios linguae sonitus natura subegit 
 Miltere, et utilitas expresit nomioa rerum. — (Lib. 5.) 
 
48 
 
 These observations are entitled to much respect, for it cannot 
 be denied that man has in the organs of speech the means of 
 producing a perfect language ; nor can it be denied that nature 
 which displays in all her works an admirable order and harmony, 
 has produced such an intimate relation between the sentiments 
 of the mind and the modulations of the voice, as to direct man 
 with unerring propriety in the choice of the modulation for the 
 expression of the sentiment. Notwithstanding these truths, there 
 are others which defeat the conclusion attempted to be deduced 
 from them, and which determine the judgment in favor of. the 
 opinion that language was infused. 
 
 Firstly, it is to be remarked that there undoubtedly exists in 
 man's nature two distinct idioms, — one animal, and the other 
 rational. If the language of which we treat was that which 
 depends on mere animal impulse under the excitement of the 
 passions, — as laughing or crying are produced by pleasure or 
 pain, there would be no room for argument; for we observe 
 this animal idiom to be uniform throughout the human race in 
 all parts of the earth, and hence it is evident that the reasoning 
 faculty has no agency in the formation of it ; these are functions 
 which nature has reserved to herself, and she does not leave to 
 man the power of violating those laws, and that uniform order, 
 by which she indicates in his gestures and his interjections the 
 passions which agitate his soul ; — this is instinct ; such also is 
 the language of brutes — certainly not infused ; the bull roars, 
 the horse neighs, and the dog barks, by means of the me- 
 chanical disposition of the organs intended to give utterance to 
 the various modifications of their feelings or wants. The ra- 
 tional idiom is the product of the understanding, and peculiar 
 to the race of man ; it is composed of articulated words; the 
 animal idiom which he possesses in common with the brutes, is 
 instinctive, and composed of interjections ; the first depending 
 on the caprice of man, has as many forms as there are nations; 
 the last made immutable by the imperative power of nature, is 
 uniform and universal in each race of the animal creation. 
 
 Brute animals are deprived by nature of the power of extend- 
 ing or improving any of their faculties, their idiom is therefore 
 unchangeable; thus the individual though separated when quite 
 young from all communication with his kind, yet uses the same 
 tones to express his wants or feelings as belong to all others of 
 his species. 
 
 But in the examination of the rational idiom, the first char- 
 acteristic which it presents to us is the absolute liberty with 
 
49 
 
 which it may be varied : thus there now exists a multitude of 
 distinct languages formed by the caprice of man, and varying 
 in a greater or lesser degree from the rules of nature. In the 
 first individual of the human race this liberty was tempered in 
 some measure by the exemption of his mind from all preoccu- 
 pations ; but this very fact affords an argument against the 
 supposition of his having formed such a perfect and rich lan- 
 guage as is that which we consider to have been the primitive, 
 in the short interval between the moment when he was called 
 on to use it, and that of his creation. We will allow for an 
 instant that the rational faculty of the first man enabled him to 
 ascertain the signification of the modulations of his voice by the 
 effects which they produced on himself, yet he would not there- 
 fore be able to form a perfect idiom immediately : a very mature 
 examination of each object must have been necessary before he 
 could give to it an appropriate name ; without a very prolix 
 study he could not have formed the grammar and all the me- 
 chanism of his language ; abundant as were the perfect models 
 offered by nature for his imitation, a very distinct comprehen- 
 sion and very exact observation of her sublime principles were 
 necessary before he could attempt to copy them. A language 
 which even in its most minute words gives an exact idea of the 
 qualities and attributes which they represent, must have required 
 for its formation not only a knowledge of its radical principles, 
 but a profound critical and philosophical examination of, and a 
 perfect acquaintance with, all the productions of nature. 
 
 When we consider the beautiful structure of the basque lan- 
 guage in which are the most lively and correct representations 
 of nature, we must allow that it was not within the faculty of 
 man to copy her with so much accuracy ; we do not see in it 
 any of that liberty with which man was endowed, and which 
 had he used it must necessarily have led him to deviate more 
 or less from her precepts. All the productions of nature are 
 finished and perfect, — all proclaim their divine origin ; but con- 
 tinual and uniform experience furnishes conclusive proofs that 
 there is not one of the productions of man which is not marked 
 by his characteristic disposition to improve the works of nature ; 
 we have the most striking illustration of this disposition, in the 
 multitude of languages now in use, all of them full of proofs of 
 this tendency in man to separate from the rules of nature ; — 
 hence is to be inferred that the primitive language would not 
 have been exempted from the defects consequent on that dispo- 
 sition, had it been of human origin. Apart from this considcra- 
 7 
 
50 
 
 tion, it has been made evident that the first man could not have 
 formed this language, all perfect as it is, in the first moments of 
 Ills existence, nor indeed till after years of profound observation 
 and meditation ; but on examining the history of the creation we 
 shall find that he had scarcely come out of the hands of the Cre- 
 ator before he made use of his faculty of speech in all its exten- 
 sion and perfection. The sacred historian Moses, informs us that 
 man was formed on the sixth day, and the instant that he was 
 animated he was occupied in listening to the precepts of his 
 Creator ; immediately afterwards, and before woman was formed, 
 he was employed by order of God in giving to all the animals of 
 the creation names, not only distinctive, but names defining the 
 principal qualities of each species; he must have possessed 
 then, not only an idiom complete in all its parts — but he must 
 have had also a perfect knowledge of all nature, and this must 
 have been infused ; indeed the holy scripture says expressly, 
 that God endowed our first parents with consummate wisdom, 
 and that he manifested to them all the glory of all his works, and 
 the several purposes for which they were intended.* 
 
 The reader will adopt whichever of the two opinions in ques- 
 tion may appear to him to be the most reasonable, in the 
 examination of the primitive language, admiring the extent of 
 intellectual power, if he supposed that language to have been 
 formed by the genius of man, and the great importance of the 
 various knowledge which it embraces, if he considers it the 
 work of the Creator. 
 
 * This part of the author's argument he has labored with extraordinary 
 prolixity, and I have therefore abridged it as much as-vvas possible without 
 absolute mutilation, because for unbelievers in the Mosaic relation it can be 
 of no account, and for believers it is superfluous, since that relation offers at 
 first view a syllogism which precludes all possibility of doubt ; God spoke to 
 Adam as soon as he created him ; the language of God must have been perfect ; 
 Adam then understood, by infusion, a perfect language. Mr. Erro had amongst 
 his opponents even priests, this may have been a reason for his copiousness 
 on this scriptural authority ; their cavils at least must be presumed to have 
 been foreclosed by his reasoning. 
 
51 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Confusion of Babel cannot be opposed as a Proof against 
 the Existence of the Primitive Language. 
 
 The confusion of Babel has, on the authority of ecclesiasti- 
 cal writers, been urged as an argument to prove that the primi- 
 tive language was lost ; to fix solidly our opinion on this point, 
 let us firstly examine the authorities. Several writers have 
 supposed that the Tower of Babel was built in the pride of man 
 and in disobedience to the orders of God, who had pre-deter- 
 mined the dispersion ; hence they consider the confusion of 
 tongues to have been a punishment for the rebellion, and a 
 total oblivion of the primitive language : this is the most general 
 opinion amongst the expositors of holy writ, (St. Aug. de Civ. 
 Dei — lib. 16, ch. 4,) but there are many others who deny that 
 the building of the tower was a crime, or in disobedience to 
 any order of God, — these consider it to have been intended as 
 a monument to eternize the memory of this remarkable epoch 
 of the dispersion already determined on, according to that 
 passage in Genesis, " We will make our name famous before 
 we disperse over the earth :" such is the opinion of Abulense, 
 of Renald and many of the rabbins. There is still a third 
 opinion that has many adherents, these contend that in the 
 expressions " labii unius et sermonum eorundem" — and the rest 
 of the chapter to the tenth verse, is to be understood the con- 
 formity of opinions as to the construction of the tower, and in 
 no wise the universality of language, nor its subsequent confu- 
 sion ; Saint Gregory, who is also of this opinion, adds that the 
 words of the scripture merely imply that whilst men lived in 
 one society they spoke the same language, but that when they 
 were divided into separate societies, each of these formed a 
 separate language, to the end that the separation should be 
 more complete ; and this diversity of languages he considers to 
 have grown naturally out of the separation, and not to have 
 been produced by a special intervention of the Supreme Power. 
 This variety of opinions amongst authors of such distinguished 
 erudition, shows how little foundation there is for asserting as an 
 undoubted fact, that the primitive language was wholly lost in 
 the confusion of Babel. It is not to be conceived that a people 
 
52 
 
 could at once forget their own language, and achieve all the 
 difficulties which belong to the formation of others ; this con- 
 sideration has led many writers to conclude, that had it not 
 been for the confusion of Babel, the formation of the many 
 idioms, so various in character, as those which now exist, had 
 been impossible ; certainly this is an argument of weight ; but 
 nevertheless it is also certain, that distinct idioms might have 
 been formed out of a common language, and it is not necessary 
 therefore to suppose, that the confusion of the tower was a mirac- 
 ulous mixture of idioms. From the general history of the nations 
 of the dispersion, we learn of the severe hardships to which they 
 were exposed throughout many generations, and for a long series 
 of years; and that before they arrived at their several destina- 
 tions they were in complete barbarism and ignorance ; such 
 were the first settlers in Italy, in Greece, and in iEgypt, mere 
 huntsmen and wanderers without fixed residences, or any regu- 
 lar social union, till formed to it in one place by Saturn, in 
 another by Janus, and so on by Orpheus, Osiris, and similar 
 heroes — these taught them to live together under laws, and 
 instructed them in agriculture and the useful arts. During their 
 savage and wandering state, their idiom must have been cor- 
 rupting and degrading pari passu with their civilization, and 
 impoverishing till it was reduced to the mere expression of the 
 necessities of a barbarous people ; such primitive words as were 
 preserved, must have received a new character from inflexions, 
 aspirations, and guttural sounds, so as finally to be no longer 
 cognizable ; whilst other words formed in barbarism and igno- 
 rance were introduced, and thus the language become disfigured 
 so as not to preserve the least trace of its original structure and 
 grammar. After the lapse of some ages, the intermixture of 
 nations must have produced by the intermixture of their lan- 
 guages, new idioms still further removed from the primitive. 
 As societies have returned towards civilization, their idioms 
 have been gradually improved and polished ; but what they 
 have thus acquired does not belong to the perfections of the 
 primitive language, the precepts of which were lost ; the nations, 
 each in the degree of its civilization, have perfectionated their 
 languages, and these have nothing in common but the few prin- 
 ciples to which the primitive had been reduced during the 
 periods of barbarism ; more or less of those principles may be 
 found in all the languages which we are acquainted with, and 
 we may infer that those languages which preserve the fewest of 
 
53 
 
 them, belong to nations which have had the least of civilization 
 in the barbarous epochs referred to. 
 
 It was in this progress of human affairs that all existing lan- 
 guages have been formed, and that the primitive has been 
 forgotten ; yet not wholly extinguished, for it is not to be sup- 
 posed that all the nations of the dispersion have passed through 
 precisely the same eras of barbarism in the same degree ;* 
 some of them whether because more numerous, or better 
 ordered in their migrations, or more careful in preserving the 
 legislation, police, and manners of their ancestors, may not have 
 degenerated as much as others; these must have preserved 
 more of their original language, as of their civilization. 
 
 But though we should allow that the confusion of Babel was 
 a punishment inflicted for the pride of man, and had instantly 
 produced an absolute extinction of the primitive language 
 amongst the people of Senaar, which is all the concession which 
 can be asked, it does not follow that such extinction was uni- 
 versal; those who partook of the crime suffered the punishment ; 
 but it is certain that Noah and his family, and a great portion 
 of the population of Armenia, did not participate in the project 
 which brought down the divine judgment, consequently there 
 can be no reason to suppose that they suffered by it. 
 
 Grotius, and the authorf of the treatise " On the Mechanism 
 of Language" think that the primitive language still subsists 
 scattered and mixed up with others : Theodorotus, George 
 Amira, and the Maronites of Lebanon, maintain that it is the 
 Syriac ; Bochart, Calmet, and several other writers assert that 
 it is the Hebrew: this variety of opinions adds force to the 
 reasons already exposed, for concluding that the confusion of 
 Babel, in whatever point of view considered, did not operate 
 the extinction of the primitive idiom. 
 
 * Mr Erro analyses the denominations of various places in different parts 
 of the earth, and he asserts that the principal provinces, mountains and rivers 
 in America have names perfectly descriptive of their localities according to 
 the system of primitive geography; and hence infers that the language was 
 carried to that region in very considerable purity, and as may be presumed 
 also with a proportionable degree of the civilization and of the arts of the 
 primitive societies, an opinion which is very much countenanced by the 
 existence of those great works in roads, mines, &c. in Mexico, which so 
 excited the astonishment of the Spaniards on their first arrival in that country. 
 Does not this his opinion, receive still further support from the late researches 
 of our learned philologists into the Indian idioms of this portion of the Amer- 
 ican continent? 
 
 t President de Brosses, (it is supposed.) 
 
54 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Solution of some Objections to the foregoing Opinion. 
 
 In opposition to the foregoing reasoning, some objections 
 may be urged which it may be proper to reply to before we 
 proceed in our argument. The principal of these is, that we 
 cannot seek for an explanation of events previous to the deluge, 
 in one language only, because according to the best opinions, 
 the earth having been as fully peopled at that epoch as at 
 present, it is to be presumed that the separation of nations at 
 great distances, their various climates, civil and religious insti- 
 tutions and customs, must have formed as great a variety of 
 languages as now exist. 
 
 This difficulty is easily solved when we consider the mode in 
 which the earth was peopled. Had it been peopled as it was 
 after the deluge, when the families separated by order of Noah 
 at distances which cut off all communication between them, 
 lost during their migrations all their previous knowledge, then 
 indeed we may suppose a variety of idioms to have been formed ; 
 but the manner in which the earth was first peopled was wholly 
 different from this ; it was by a gradual extension of families 
 into large societies, all connected with a common centre ; there 
 was not any dispersion or separation by great distances, the 
 community of languages was therefore continued: it is true 
 that when the earth had been fully peopled in this way, that 
 the distances between nations opposed the same difficulties to 
 inter-communication as now exist ; and that the customs, the 
 moral character, the legislation, the whole civil and social order 
 of societies having undergone various modifications, depending 
 on the different positions and circumstances in which they 
 were placed, or on the influence of climates and an infinity 
 of inferior causes, these may have operated to produce great 
 variations in the use of the primitive language, though without 
 altering its rudiments or substance. 
 
 Another objection which has been insisted on as very im- 
 portant, though in fact it is quite futile, is this ; — " How is it 
 possible that the primitive language can have been preserved in 
 a corner of Spain from the ravages of time and the ruins of 
 empires ; how have been exempted from the common fate of 
 
55 
 
 the idioms belonging to the most powerful and populous mtions 
 of the earth, — Persians, IMedes, Egyptians, and Carthageni- 
 ans." This negative argument is without force against the 
 solid reasons for believing the Euscaran or basque language to 
 hive existed in the first ages of the world. The Arabic is a 
 living language, and yet it had its origin in the dispersion ; there 
 are also the Chinese, and the Sanscrit of the Bramins, which 
 have escaped the common fate of languages. We cannot doubt 
 but that a primitive language existed entire in the time of Noah, 
 it must have been his language and that of his family ; then 
 that was the general language at the time of the dispersion ; 
 what difficulty then in believing that the primitive language has 
 been preserved till this time, as well as several other languages 
 known to have had their origin in the dispersion. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of the Rules necessary to be observed in the Analysis of Words, 
 and of the true Euphony. 
 
 Before entering on an examination of the literary monu- 
 ments of the primitive world, it is indispensable to treat of the 
 rules to be observed in seeking for an exact explanation of the 
 words which compose them. It is not to be understood that in 
 my analysis I shall follow the arbitrary method of the etymolo- 
 gists, nor that I pretend to found on their art an incontestible 
 right in the Euscaran language to its primitive character : I shall 
 pursue a more philosophical mode of investigation, the lights 
 furnished by nature will guide me to the knowledge of words in 
 their most minute elements, and enable me to distinguish and 
 separate them from the interpolations with which nearly all 
 languages have been vitiated. 
 
 It is the excellent character of the primitive language which 
 opens the way to this investigation ; — what other language is 
 there by which an analysis can be made of all the members of 
 even its smallest words, presenting to us in each of them, the 
 nature of the subject which it represents ? This rare property, 
 in proportion as it developes the hitherto unknown history of a 
 
56 
 
 celebrated people, discovers the necessity and great importance 
 of analysis: the words in a philosophical language being but a 
 group of monograms, or modulations of the voice interwoven 
 with each other, some representing the subject, and some its 
 distinct qualities, it is by a proper use of analysis only, that we 
 can penetrate the philosophical structure of the word so as to 
 ascertain its true import. 
 
 The arbitrary method of the etymologists, seeking in various 
 languages the explanation of what they do not find in the one 
 which they examine as original, opens the way by means of 
 forced and incongruous derivations, to constructions merely 
 fanciful, and terminating in a total misunderstanding of histori- 
 cal monuments : — But the primitive language must itself furnish 
 the explanation of its words ; — for being first, it cannot have in- 
 herited or borrowed from others. 
 
 If the learned men who have employed their talents in the 
 investigation of this important matter, had in the commence- 
 ment of their labors formed a correct idea of the character 
 essential to a language which had its origin in the creation, they 
 had not engaged in those toilsome but vain discussions, which 
 have left the subject in a state so different from that required 
 by sound criticism, and so unsatisfactory to mere curiosity. 
 
 Still more prejudicial to literature has been the detestable 
 abuse of etymology by the Greeks, — that famous nation, mother 
 of mendacity, and source of the gross errors in which the 
 truth of history has been enveloped, from the period when they 
 undertook to form out of it a portion of their patrimony of na- 
 tional glory. Their learned men, by means of etymology, 
 have so confounded epochs, persons, and events, as to leave 
 history in such obscurity, as that at this day it is a mere problem, 
 whether in the accounts which they have transmitted to us of 
 the first ages, we are more instructed by the portion of truth 
 which may be discovered in them, or misled by their false- 
 hoods : — deceitful by character, notorious for their inordinate 
 vanity, the Greeks did not hesitate in attributing to their own 
 language the origin of all things, — especially where they could 
 find the least analogy in its sounds with the names of foreign 
 persons, nations, or territories.* 
 
 * The propensity of the Greeks to falsehood, and their ignorance in history, 
 are facts sufficiently notorious; nevertheless, as the admirers of Grecian lit- 
 erature are very numerous, and as it carries with it therefore a certain degree 
 of authority, it may he as well to submit to the reader some of the opinions of 
 the most learned ancients. Plato allows that the ./Egyptians considered the 
 
57 
 
 I do not however infer from the abuse of etymology, that 
 this branch of literature is useless as well as delicate : but it is 
 an extremely nice science, and requires a profound knowledge 
 of the history of languages and of nations, as well as a philoso- 
 phical acumen which has not been the endowment of all those 
 who in cultivating it have attempted to extend its limits beyond 
 the bounds prescribed by philosophy : withal it has contributed 
 powerfully to explain the mechanism of language, and to sub- 
 mit its component parts to grammatical rules ; it also furnishes 
 the means of tracing derivative languages to their sources ; in 
 that view it is recommended by Plato, Varro, Cicero, and 
 Quintilian, — and by Locke and de Brosse amongst the moderns. 
 
 Analysis cannot be made in the idiom which we consider to 
 be primitive, with all the nicety required by sound criticism, 
 unless we have a previous acquaintance with the genius and 
 mechanism which furnish rules for the formation of its words ; 
 these rules are in a limited number, and are the only rules 
 which can be applied ; nothing arbitrary can be admitted ; 
 nothing of that license with which etymologists have defaced 
 history : our speculations are confined to a single language, nor 
 will there be in the examination of its words the smallest varia- 
 tion which will not be authorized by philosophical precepts. 
 
 One of the most essential rules to be observed in the investi- 
 gation of the true signification of words, is to distinguish those 
 superfluous letters which in all languages are added, for the 
 purpose of giving that harmony and softness to the sound which 
 is called euphony. A great deal has been written on this pre- 
 cept, but it appears to have been as much misunderstood as 
 
 Greeks " to be ignorant and trifling in history ', and the accounts which they 
 gave of themselves as fit stories for children" Herodotus acknowledges the 
 same defects in his nation, (lib. 2.) where he treats of the expedition of 
 Hercules to Egypt. Euripides in Iphegenia, says of his countrymen, that 
 " they have not good faith in any matter" Amongst the Roman writers, 
 Juvenal says, 
 
 Et quidquid groecia mendax 
 
 Audeit in historia. 
 
 Pliny say9 that they are vaui and impostors, — and again in another place, — 
 " Mirum est quo procedat Groeca credulitas, nullum tan impudens mendatium 
 est, ut teste careat." Valerius Flaccus says, 
 
 " te groecia fallax 
 
 Persequor."- 
 
 Omitting many others, I will conclude these citations with the opinion of Ci- 
 cero as we find it in his oration " Pro Flaco."- 
 
 " Tribuo illis litteras, do multarum artium disciplinam, testimoniorum autem 
 fidem et veritatem nunquam isti coluere," 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 many other properties of language : euphony does not consist, 
 as some have supposed, in that musical tone which was used in 
 the Grecian and Roman colloquial languages formerly, and is 
 now used by the Chinese ; in the most perfect idioms this is an 
 accident, not a property ; and in the least perfect, it is a means 
 of supplying by intonation the want of expression and precision : 
 such idioms may be called musical, but they are not euphon- 
 ical : euphony is a property cf language, and is to be found in its 
 very nature and mechanism ; not in its musical character, which 
 even considered as prosody, is a faculty distinct from the idiom. 
 A language which in the composition of its words, uses with 
 suitable discretion the elements of the voice, so as to express 
 the characteristic qualities of objects, in such a way as to pre- 
 sent a correct and complete idea of them, is essentially eupho- 
 nical ; for it copies nature, which is perfect and harmonious in 
 all its parts : consequently the words of such a language can- 
 not and ought not to be soft or smooth, when they are intended 
 to convey an idea of rough and harsh qualities; an attention to 
 this precept has produced many of those beauties which we 
 admire in the best poets, who have supplied by art this perfec- 
 tion in which their language has been deficient. Thus who 
 but must be pleased with that passage in Virgil wherein he 
 represents Juno opening the iron gates of the temple of War, 
 
 " et cardine verso 
 
 Belli ferratos rupit Saturnia postes." 
 
 The very roughness of this verse makes it as agreeable in this 
 passage, as is the smoothest in any of the Eclogues, — and this 
 effect is produced by the judicious selection of words, an art in 
 which Virgil excelled ; the best painter is he who most correct- 
 ly copies nature, and considering euphony to be one of the 
 most beautiful properties of language, that idiom is the most 
 perfect, which in the composition of its words, represents with 
 most accuracy the harmonies of nature. 
 
 Harshness and smoothness being qualities in nature, ought also 
 to be in the idiom which pretends faithfully to represent her; 
 therefore euphony cannot consist in, or depend on, the tones 
 of the pronunciation, but must be an essential property in the 
 words, which formed on philosophical principles, preserve the 
 true euphony in whatever natural tone they be pronounced. 
 This is perfectly exemplified in the primitive language ; for 
 example the Laburtanians use in their dialect an intonation as 
 wholly different from that of the interior of Guipuscoa, as this 
 
59 
 
 is from that of the country bordering on the Bidaossa and on 
 the sea coast, the musical cadences and softness of which are 
 peculiarly agreeable; thus though the language is the same in 
 all the provinces, yet they appear to have divers idioms; and 
 so the Romans imagined : in the same manner one idiom may 
 be supposed to be more euphonic, — and another more rude 
 and common ; these variations are so great, that were the 
 basque provinces separated by wide distances, it would not be 
 doubted but that they had languages altogether distinct. 
 
 The words of language are composed of a certain determin- 
 ate number of modulations; all those produced by nature are 
 precise, appropriate, and perfect, though some are rough and 
 others smooth. Many of the learned, not having paid at- 
 tention to this fact, have absurdly asserted that the r, as also the 
 k and the t, are not euphonical letters ; had they consulted 
 nature, they would have found that the r in its proper place is 
 as euphonical, as the soft e, or the sonorous n. In a philoso- 
 phical language there cannot be any euphony without proprie- 
 ty ; and there cannot be any propriety in attempting to repre- 
 sent rough things by soft modulations: The true Euphony then 
 consists in an exact representation of nature in her different rela- 
 tions, by those modulations which are best adapted to the char- 
 acteristic properties of the subjects to be described by them, 
 all modulations being euphonical when judiciously employed in 
 the formation of words. Had those of our Spanish literati 
 whose preventions have led them to consider the basque lan- 
 guage to be harsh and unpolished, been aware of these princi- 
 ples, they had not ventured on those bold assertions which in 
 effect condemn the language for its very perfection ; in observ- 
 ing those harsh sounds of our patronymics from which they 
 have so hastily inferred the want of softness in our language, 
 they would have seen that those names being definitions of 
 localities, seats of our families placed in rough mountainous 
 regions, could not be otherwise than rough and harsh. 
 
 The imitation of nature then, is that which constitutes 
 euphony, and perfects a language; but as there, are different 
 degrees of perfection, so we cannot consider a language to be 
 completely euphonical, which in its words gives merely a re- 
 presentation of the subject referred to; it is necessary that the 
 several parts of those words should be so connected, as to make 
 the pronunciation continuous; it was therefore that in the 
 primitive language, wherever a rigorous definition brought two 
 vowels together in the same word, a consonant was inserted 
 
GO 
 
 between them, so that the pronunciation might not be arrested, 
 and thus the unity of the word might be preserved : in such 
 cases, the signification of the inserted consonant does not 
 enter into the composition of the word, its only office is to 
 euphonize it ; therefore it is to be rejected whenever we exam- 
 ine the word in its primitive formation : for example, in the 
 composition of the word odola which signifies the blood, the 
 original word is o-ola, exactly expressing the idea as to that 
 humor of the body, which belonged to the physical doctrine of 
 the primitive world : but the word, though very expressive, 
 was not quite euphonical; for the union of two vowels occa- 
 sioned two expulsions of the breath in pronunciation, therefore 
 the d was placed between the two vowels to preserve the unity 
 of the word, and to render it perfectly euphonical. This same 
 rule has been very much attended to in the. latin language, 
 as for example in the words, re-d-eo, re-d-integratur, where 
 the d is not placed as part of the composition of the words 
 necessary to their significations, but for the mere purpose of 
 euphonizing them. 
 
 In the Grecian language also this rule has been observed, 
 for example in the word di-x-caou in which according to Plato 
 the x is euphonic ;• and indeed there is not a known language, 
 even amongst those the least polished, in which more or less 
 attention has not been paid to euphony ; hence we must con- 
 clude that it is a principle of nature herself. 
 
 Whether it be owing to that instinctive disposition which leads 
 man to seek for short methods for the purpose of diminishing 
 his labor; or to the influence of climate on pronunciation; 
 certain it is that language has every where been disfigured by a 
 multitude of syllabic contractions. This defect being universal 
 in the languages of the dispersion, consequently the primitive 
 words which are still found in them, have undergone the same 
 degree of alteration ; hence it is necessary in analyzing them 
 to supply the suppressed letters for the purpose of restoring ihe 
 true pronunciation ; and this is easily done, because in general 
 the words which have been altered, present their meaning at 
 first view notwithstanding this change of form ; besides, the 
 primitive language being free from these irregular contractions, 
 its very genius points out the rectification. 
 
 As all the means which have been employed to render words 
 euphonical, are so many precepts necessary to be kept in view 
 
 *Plat: in Crat : " Merito Ji-k-uicju est appelatum, x u no 
 Politioris prolationis gratia interject." 
 
61 
 
 in a correct analysis, that we may not confound the elements 
 of the composition, so it is essential that we do not forget 
 affinity, which substituting one letter for another for the purpose 
 of rendering words more smooth, has been employed in most 
 languages ; thus we so frequently find the b substituted for the 
 p, I for r, t for d, c for s, and k for g, — and vice versa : 
 the Euscaran language which explains the qualities of objects by 
 their appellations, calls the sun ekus-quia, but as this word has 
 not all the softness which the delicacy of the language required, 
 the k though it enters into the composition of the word with its 
 true value, is changed into .a g, and the word becomes egus- 
 quia ; so in analysing this word we must reject theg as merely 
 euphonical, and restore the k. 
 
 It is also necessary to observe, that the alphabets of all 
 languages are not equally complete; hence it occurs that some 
 of the words of the primitive which have been preserved in 
 other languages, have not the full and precise expression which 
 belong to them, for want of suitable modulations in those 
 languages ; in such cases the nearest affinities have been em- 
 ployed ; thus for example in the word uts-ilun which the 
 Greeks received from the primitive language, not having in their 
 own the modulation ts, they took ps. So in the word bisitz or 
 Jisitz, which with its characteristic of an appellative noun is 
 bisitza, or Jisitza, and means life, the Greeks adopting it to re- 
 present nature, were obliged to substitute for tz, an s, and pro- 
 nounced (pvCtq, or jisis.* 
 
 In the examination and analysis of primitive words found in 
 other languages, it is also necessary to observe that terminations 
 have been added in harmony with the several characters of 
 those languages ; consequently such foreign terminations are to 
 be rejected ; this is easily effected, seeing that the primitive 
 word itself never varies, therefore the difference made in its 
 form by the foreign language is easily detected by adverting to 
 the genius of that language ; for example, if we would know 
 what is the formation in the primitive, of the word Vtnus in 
 the latin language, considering the genius of that language, and 
 that the radical word cannot have varied,- we shall expect to 
 find it by abstracting it from the latin declination, Ben-us, 
 Ben-eris, Ben-erem, we have then ben as the radical. 
 
 These are the principal rules to be kept in view in the 
 analysis of words, and I have here stated the motives of con- 
 
 * I for u see what is said on upsilon. 
 
G2 
 
 venience or necessity which have introduced them into languages, 
 that the reader may see the reason of my frequent application 
 of them, and not attribute this to an arbitrary caprice. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of Numbers, or the first Part of the System of the Universe. 
 
 jU 
 
 SECTION I. — OF THE MATTER OR BODY OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 It is not to be doubted but that many of the most important 
 productions of the human intellect have been lost : the sciences 
 wholly dependent on the fate of the nations which have culti- 
 vated them, have simultaneously suffered by the decadences 
 brought about by the evil passions of men ; of some nations 
 scarcely more than the names are known to us ; so of their 
 knowledge, the traces are merely sufficiently apparent to excite 
 our curiosity; to satisfy this, what travels! watchings! labors! 
 and excavations ! and what sterile results ! the powerful hand 
 of time has destroyed all. Yet in the midst of these melan- 
 choly reflections there remains for the studious man die means 
 of examining the scientific monuments of that nation from 
 which all the others have derived, and which left the principles 
 of its knowledge as an inheritance for succeeding ages. 
 
 Had all nations been equally careful, as was the primitive, 
 to form a perfect language, and to deposit in it the elements of 
 their knowledge, we should now notwithstanding the extinction 
 of those nations be able to learn what was the state of science 
 amongst them, and also the chief events of their histories. It 
 is thus that the Gmmk primitive people, now reduced to a few 
 agricultural villages, has transmitted to us the most sublime prin- 
 ciples of natural philosophy and other sciences; the words 
 which contain these, hitherto generally presumed to be merely 
 conventional, used by literary men as by rustics, have been as 
 little known in their scientific character by the one as by the 
 other ; and the kw persons who have given their attention to 
 
G3 
 
 this language, have not carried their observations beyond the 
 ordinary limits of research into other languages. 
 
 But a new order of important discoveries will now exhibit to 
 us the basque people with all their titles to celebrity, derived 
 from periods unknown to history, when was laid the foundation 
 of the sciences which have descended even to this epoch. 
 
 The basque numeration will first occupy our attention, and it 
 will be seen that this part of the language, embraces in a ^ew, 
 not exceeding thirteen words, all the elements of natural phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 The learned will certainly examine with pleasure this primi- 
 tive system, which having been scattered through the ancient 
 civilized world, we yet find some traces of amongst the He- 
 brews as in Moses, amongst the Chaldeans in Ezekiel, amongst 
 the Arabs in Job, amongst the Greeks in Pythagoras and Plato, 
 amongst the ^Egyptians in Eudoxus and other authors cited by 
 Plutarch, amongst the Romans in Cicero, Virgil, and Marcro- 
 bius, amongst the Chinese and Mexicans in their traditions : 
 this system lost to the literary world, is now after a long course 
 of ages discovered entire amongst the basque people who 
 originated it ; it is found not full of anomalies as it was under- 
 stood by Pythagoras and in the East, and as it was published in 
 Greece, but in all its original purity. Nevertheless, I am not 
 perfectly sure that I have effected my purpose with the utmost 
 desirable accuracy ; for besides that the task is one of delicacy, 
 requiring great exactness, the method in which the Euscaldunes 
 proceeded in the explanation of their system, was not only 
 very subtile and delicate, but affected a certain obscurity which 
 renders the interpretation of it more difficult, from, a want of 
 auxiliary notices which have not come down to us. 
 
 This system, simple in its essential features, after presenting 
 to us the creation of the first principles of all things, of the order 
 in which they were created, and of the proportions in which 
 they exist respectively to each other, and in the plan of nature ; 
 which is truly the knowledge a priori of first causes ;• makes us 
 acquainted with the vast soulot the universe in the combination 
 of three movements ; one elevating bodies, — another, though 
 less in degree, modifying the first in a direction towards the 
 centre of the universe, — and the third directing the bodies thus 
 suspended to move round the centre. 
 
 This mode of explaining the movements of the universe is 
 not less ingenious and simple, than the admission of fecundity, 
 or a law by which motion as well as all other principles are 
 
64 
 
 constantly reproduced ; it establishes a doctrine the reverse of 
 that of Descartes, who held that nature preserves always the 
 same quantity of motion. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts of philosophers to discover 
 perpetual motion, thus as it were to withdraw our system from 
 the superintendence of the Supreme Being, the grand spectacle 
 of the admirable harmonies of nature must make them sensible 
 to i(s dependance on that being ; and in good faith they must 
 confess, that motion cannot be unalterable, for the causes which 
 co-operate to destroy force, being more than those which pro- 
 duce it, according to the doctrine of Newton, motion would 
 certainly cease if the supreme power did not from time to time 
 communicate a new impulse to it : this doctrine is that of the 
 Euscaldunes, who observing that the principle of fecundity pre- 
 vailed throughout the universe, considered it as a principle 
 established by God to maintain the order of the creation in all 
 its elements. 
 
 The primitive physical science, bounded by the simple 
 notions furnished in the denomination and order of numbers, 
 does not enable us to present our system supported by all those 
 means which our ancestors undoubtedly possessed of satisfying 
 the doubts which it may be of a nature to give rise to ; but in 
 this respect, those who have adopted the theory of attraction 
 have not any advantage over us ; with all the aid of their data 
 and calculations, they never will be able to give solutions of the 
 very serious difficulties and embarrassing doubts and contradic- 
 tions which grow out of their theory. 
 
 One of the circumstances the most mysterious in the Euscaran 
 language, is its numeration ; its definitions bear no analogy to 
 the common idea of numbers ; in the composition of them there 
 is much enigmatical obscurity, besides a total independence of 
 each other, each carrying with it its own abstract idea ; these 
 difficulties, and that of finding an indication of the first principle 
 on which the nomenclature was formed, so discouraged me in 
 the commencement of my work, as almost to persuade me to 
 abandon it ; but in the course of my investigations 1 found many 
 proofs that the celebrated systems brought to Greece from 
 JE'iypt, Persia and other countries of the east, had their origin 
 in ages anterior to the deluge, and fixing my attention on the 
 mysterious philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato, in which num- 
 bers have so great a part, 1 saw abundant reasons to conclude 
 that those famous doctrines were founded on the principles of 
 the basque numeration ; a few essays put me into the true road, 
 
65 
 
 and led me clear of the labyrinth in which I had been engaged. 
 It is now made evident to me, that all the harmonies of the 
 Pythagorean numbers out of which Plato formed. his celebrated 
 Timeus, a work which has produced so many commentaries, 
 are no other than systems raised on the notions relative to their 
 numeration and their physical opinions, which the Euscaldunes 
 had left spread over the East, but differing from them by those 
 alterations which all systems borrowed from former ages 
 have necessarilv undergone : when afier the migrations of the 
 people of the dispersion they desired to revert to the sciences 
 which had been comprised in the language of their ancestors, 
 without that original to consult and by which to solve the doubts 
 resulting from the imperfect relics of physical knowledge, they 
 we're obliged to form a system which might explain them in 
 the best manner then possible: though the primitive system 
 degenerated thus from its principles, yet enough of it remained 
 to disclose some of the sublime ideas which it embraced, these 
 captivated the sages of the East even to superstitious veneration, 
 and finally became an essential portion of their theology. This 
 philosophy brought to Europe by Pythagoras, formed a nume- 
 rous sect which existed for many ages after his death ; amongst 
 those who most contributed to its celebrity was the great Plato,* 
 he has left us in his Timeus, proof of his adhesion to it, and of 
 his conviction that the universe and all its laws, are but the 
 result of the proportion and power of numbers. 
 
 Ascending then to the origin of this system, we find that the 
 Euscaldunes admitted of two epochs in the creation, both pro- 
 ceeding from a supreme ingenite being; the first epoch com- 
 prehending the creation of all the principles which enter into 
 the constitution of the universe, the second epoch a space of 
 six days, giving order to these same principles in the construc- 
 tion of the universe ; of this second epoch the cosmogonies of 
 all nations have given relations more or less exact, for all have 
 preserved some tradition of it ; but as to the first epoch, there 
 exists no other than the basque nation which presents to us a 
 systematic order of the creation of first principles : Moses con- 
 fining himself to his chief object, that of making us acquainted 
 with the power of the Creator, says only as to the first creation, 
 " in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth" 
 
 * Macrob. de Somno. Hinc et Plato postquam Pitagoricac successione doc- 
 trince, et in^enii proprii divina profunditate cognovit null am esse posse sine 
 his numeris jugabilera competentiain in Timeo suo mundi animain peristori:m 
 numerorum contextionein in efabili providentia Dei (a brie a tor is instituit. 
 
 9 
 
GG 
 
 meaning all the principles which enter into this great work, and 
 from which he then made the universe in six days ; Moses 
 then proceeds. to relate the order of the creation, but is wholly- 
 silent as to the order in which the principles of nature were 
 applied, and as to their harmonies and reciprocal relations in 
 the grand edifice of the universe ; and this, because seeing 
 their operation in the general movement, he could not doubt of 
 their having been previously created, as it is evident that the 
 earth was, the abysm or space, the principle of fecundity, the 
 waters and all the seed which were intended to produce fruits ; 
 these all existed before the six days, (see Genesis, ch. 1 and 2,) 
 and the fact is confirmed by the primitive system. 
 
 According to the opinion of the Euscaldunes, before any 
 thing existed God was an eternal principle : to manifest the 
 unity and simplicity of his essence they called him bat, that is 
 one; they believed that in this principle all things had their 
 origin, were engendered by its mere perceptions, and were 
 placed by its supreme intelligence in the most harmonious order. 
 They supposed that numbers had their existence in the first 
 productions of the creation, and therefore determined that the 
 names of those creations according to the order in which they 
 were created, should be the names of the numbers, and they 
 gave to each creation a name containing a definition of its 
 nature. The world according to the doctrine of that people 
 is an animated being, the object of its creation good, and the 
 principles which enter into the formation of the universe repre- 
 sent the attributes of the supreme Creator. 
 
 Pythagoras, and after him Plato, who found these doctrines 
 much altered in the East, fell into the error of attributing to 
 numbers a real power, and believed that the harmonies, and 
 the lines and figures which represented them, had forme J the 
 universe ; that is to say, they considered numbers as ma'erial 
 entities, and as having those active principles which resided 
 only in the creations represented by them ; so by the aid of 
 numbers, geometrical lines, and metaphysical abstractions, they 
 attempted to explain all the harmonies of nature : thus the 
 number one in the Euscaran numeration being a definition of 
 God, in whom as a principle were all' beings to which he could 
 communicate existence, these philosophers believed that this 
 creating faculty was in the number itself, — that the unit engen- 
 dering another, formed two sides of a triangle, and that this 
 could only be made perfect by the generation of a third side ; 
 they said that the elements were composed of triangles com- 
 
67 
 
 bined ;* that the acute angle was the form of fire, the octagon of 
 air, a dodecagon of the sphere of the world, an icosedron of 
 water ; they said that a square was the earth, which as an infe- 
 rior element differed from the form of the triangle in the degree 
 of difference existing between the elements, without however 
 losing its essence, for the triangle and the number three which 
 represents it, was according to this philosophy the common 
 measure of all things. They said as the Euscaldunes did, that 
 the world was animated ; they supposed that the soul was 
 united to the body in a* certain numerical proportion, and that 
 when the constitutive number was completed, this connexion of 
 the soul and body could not be prolonged, — the one abandoned 
 the other and produced death, to which opinion Virgil alludes, 
 when he says, (Lib. 6, vers. 545,) 
 
 " Explebo numerum redarque tenebris." 
 
 Finally, they maintained that the universe was animated, that 
 it might act in union with motion which is so; that the edifice 
 of the world was subject to a supreme cause, and that the gen- 
 eration of ail beings was owing to an harmonious movement, by 
 means of which the principles of -things placed themselves in 
 that order which constituted the properties of numbers. 
 
 If these philosophers instead of seeking in numbers and the 
 lines which represented them, the faculties and purposes which 
 they attributed to them, had applied those faculties to the ele- 
 ments which the numbers represent, the results of their doctrines 
 had not been so sterile, nor would the sublimity with which 
 their ideas at first view present themselves, have terminated in 
 total disappointment : but the eastern nations from which they 
 derived the principles of their philosophy, could not communi- 
 cate more light, for they were totally ignorant of the primitive 
 idiom ; it had been lost for many ages, and in that only a cor- 
 rect explanation and application of those principles could be 
 found. They obtained and applied all that was then known 
 upon the matter, but the comparison which we shall now make 
 of our numeration with their opinions, will show that they sought 
 the truth in its mere shadow. 
 
 BAT. 
 
 From the moment that God began to create, there was order 
 and classification of the created beings, consequently there was 
 numeration. God who is supreme wisdom and perfection, 
 
 * Diog. Laett. de vit. philosop. — Li. 3. 
 
138 
 
 could not give being to his creatures but in the most harmoni- 
 ous order ; thus he did not create all things at the same mo- 
 ment, — this would have manifested his power ; but progressive- 
 ly, thus manifesting at the same time his power and his infinite 
 wisdom : all things have a divine principle, all having their 
 origin in God ; so of numbers. The Platonicians said " the 
 principle of the number is divine, for it is unity." The 
 basque language, in which numbers are the denominations of 
 things created, considers one as father or first principle of tins 
 creation, — that is God; the name of this number is bat, and is 
 composed of at, ata — an articulation of infancy, which signifies 
 father, and of the letter b, a mere expletive in the composition 
 to give fulness to the pronunciation of the word ; the radical at, 
 which with the characteristic letter a is ata, signifies also gen- 
 eration, a quality inherent in the father ; so we say b, at-aitz-a 
 baptism ; as though we said of generation abundance, — that 
 is, a sacrament in which resides abundantly the faculty of gen- 
 erating in the man who receives it. Thus the number one is 
 father or generator of all the creatures; that is, according to 
 the basque opinion, God in whom exists all the constitutive 
 principles of the universe. 
 
 Pythagoras and his disciples applied to unity the attributes 
 which can reside only in God, — and in this respect, his one or 
 monas conforms with our language : Zarates the master of Py- 
 thagoras, calls the number one the father, as it was called in 
 Euscaran, — a proof that the name was taken from that language 
 together with the doctrine (as to the properties of the number) 
 taught by his sect: moreover the Euscaldunes represented 
 this number by a point, as is seen in some medals and other 
 ancient monuments ; the Pythagoricians and Platonicians did 
 so also. 
 
 BI. 
 
 The basque language gave this name to the number two, 
 it signifies line, as is seen in the word bi-de-a, the road : bi is 
 composed of the modulation i, which signifies any thing lineal, 
 radiant, and of the letter b, placed in the composition of the 
 word merely to give fulness to the pronunciation ; by the defi- 
 nition of this word we see that in the physical system of the 
 primitive age, the line or longitude was the first principle crea- 
 ted, and in the proportion of the number two. 
 
 This opinion was faithfully transmitted to the nations of the 
 
69 
 
 dispersion, and thus Macrobius,* who was acquainted with the 
 opinions of Plato, and had studied very particularly the numeral 
 philosophy of Pythagoras, says expressly, that the line was the 
 first existence produced by the omnipotence of the monade or 
 number one, and that consequently the two is the first number. 
 
 The Pythagoricians had an unfavorable opinion of this num- 
 ber, and having preserved in their schools all the mysteries and 
 allegorical allusions with which the oriental imagination had ob- 
 scured the. most obvious truths, they said that two was a poor 
 number, defective, that it was discord and audacity, the genius 
 of evil, he. he., and of such a nature, that if its influence pre- 
 vailed in the air it produced tempests, if in the mind vices, if in 
 the body diseases, if in cities and families, seditions and discords. 
 
 As the line is a measure, and represents the distance or 
 division between one point and another, and as according to 
 the Pythagoricians, separation or division is the origin of all 
 evils, hence generalizing this principle, giving to the number real 
 power, (which does not belong to it) and abstracting the line, 
 they attributed to two all the above mentioned properties, at- 
 tempting thus to find the harmonies*of the moral world in those 
 of the physical. 
 
 IRU. 
 
 To the line succeeded the creation of motion in the propor- 
 tion of the number three, as is indicated by the name of that 
 number in basque, i-r-u, which signifies literally of lineal 
 movement abundance ; it is composed of the modulation i, be- 
 fore explained, of the note of motion r, and of the abundantial 
 letter u. 
 
 Here then is the creation of motion, that admirable principle 
 which presents to us the perpetual action of the universe ; its 
 nature is expressed by the number three the proportion in 
 which it was created, and in which it is placed relatively to the 
 other principles in the plan of naturef ; thus we are assured 
 
 *Macrob. " Dyas quia post monadem prima est, primus est numerus. 
 Haecabillaomnipotentiasolitaria, in corporis intelligibilis linea prima defluxit." 
 And again, " Primus ergo numerus in duobus est, qui similis est linea." 
 
 f " The proportion in which it was created and in luhich it is placed" 8fc. 
 The Spanish word proporcion which frequently occurs in this work, I have 
 uniformly rendered by our word lt proportion" as being preferable to ratio, 
 relation, affinity, or their synonymes, though not completely covering the 
 whole sense of the author ; perhaps the best translation of this word would 
 be into the French " rapport ;" it is said " numbers had their existence in 
 the first productions of the creation," — and again, " the moment God began 
 to create, there was order and classification in the created beings, and con- 
 
70 
 
 that this principle will suhsist perpetually as well as the others, 
 and those are answered who have said, " that the nature of the 
 moving power not being known, it is impossible to determine a 
 priori whether it will continue to act unceasingly." 
 
 The general persuasion amongst those who are most pro- 
 found in physical science is, that motion is a property of mat- 
 ter ; but we see that the primitive doctrine held on the contrary, 
 that motion was created before mptter : it was created infinite 
 because term had not yet been created, and its first direction 
 was a right line, because that was the only principle which had 
 been previously created, consequently it could not act in any 
 other direction. 
 
 The Platonicians said that the number three was a full num- 
 ber, and represented abundance and multitude, this was pre- 
 cisely the opinion of the Basques, who even at this time, in 
 saying to hold or possess, use the name of this number, thus 
 iru-qui ; and money they call d-iru. 
 
 Those philosophers also said that this number, which they 
 represented by a triangle, corresponded to the perfections of 
 the soul; Virgil alludes to this doctrine thus 
 
 " Numero deus impare gaudet." 
 
 This opinion was founded on the doctrine of the primitive 
 system, that in the number three was created the principle of 
 motion ; in the philosophy of Plato, the soul and movement 
 were identic, thus with the imperfect notions which they had of 
 the primitive doctrine, they attributed to this number perfection : 
 though it is true that motion had its being, and the soul of the 
 Universe its origin in this number, yet its excellence and per- 
 fection belonged to other proportions distinct from three, as we 
 shall see hereafter. The Pythagoricians attributed also to the 
 number three superficies formed by three lines, but herein also 
 they deviated from the primitive system, according to which no 
 matter yet existed of which to constitute superficie ; nor was 
 
 sequently numeration ;" here then is the rapport, between the number and 
 the principle created ; thus this system supposes a philosophical relation, a 
 certain harmony between the number and the principle, belonging to their 
 simultaneous creation : the name of the number denotes at once the nature of 
 the principle, and the order in which it was created ; the principles or causes 
 in the plan of nature are placed in a numerical order, which is their fit, har- 
 monious, and therefore necessary order respectively to each other ; this 
 numerical order then corresponds exactly to the names of the numbers in 
 the same order; in that order then the same relation which one number has 
 to another, one principle has to another, and the rapport between the num- 
 ber and the principle is perfect. 
 
71 
 
 there form to determine its figure, nor did longitude or motion 
 yet produce any thing but a line. 
 
 LAU. 
 
 This is the name which the Basques give to the number four, 
 so celebrated and mysterious in the school of Pythagoras that 
 his disciples swore by it as most holy, and held that it was a 
 number which reached nearly to the perfection of the soul. 
 
 As the primitive people had wisely established a theory of 
 denominations to explain the sciences, they did not deem it suf- 
 ficient simply to show that the creation of matter in the propor- 
 tion of number four immediately followed that of the principle 
 of motion, but gave also such a definition of it as to explain its 
 essence, and therefore called the number which represented it 
 la-u, which with the characteristic of an appellative noun is 
 laua, from whence comes the latin lava, that is the matter of 
 Volcanoes. The word is composed of the syllable la which 
 signifies union, adhesion, and of the abundantial letter u; that 
 is to say, matter is a thing of abundant adhesion ; this is what 
 we now call cohesion, or perhaps with equal propriety hardness, 
 or impenetrability. 
 
 As soon as matter existed it had motion, which had been 
 previously created in a line, which had also been created ; con- 
 sequently the Euscaldunes did not admit inertia, but considered 
 repose as a forced stale. 
 
 Matter infinitely divided, and carried to an infinite longitude, 
 did not present to physical examination any of those qualities 
 which enter into the formation of bodies, hence the propriety 
 of defining it by a quality common to all, cohesion, in virtue of 
 which the panicles of matter united form bodies in which re- 
 side the mathematical properties of latitude, longitude, and 
 depth. 
 
 As the Pythagoricians, notwithstanding their respect for this 
 number four, never could understand that in the proportion of 
 this number had been created matter, they fell into the error of 
 concluding that matter was increate and coeternal with God ; 
 this opinion became so general in all antiquity, as to be received 
 for a dogma in their theognnies and cosmogonies. 
 
 In the midst of the errors of antiquity as to matter, the first 
 source of their opinions was manifest ; for the same philoso- 
 phers who taught the eternity of matter, also said that in the 
 proportions of the number four all bodies had their origin ; this 
 which appears to be, and has always been considered as a very 
 
72 
 
 absurd contradiction, has its explanation in the basque principle 
 that in the number four God had created matter, from which in 
 fact all the bodies of the universe have been composed. 
 
 This is not the only instance in which they unwittingly taught 
 the contrary of what they believed ; the Pythagoricians who 
 distinguished the numbers by the names of the gods, said that the 
 quadrangle corresponded to Ceres, and this being one of the 
 names of the earth which is for us the most sensible part of 
 matter, it is easy to discover the source of their opinion, as well 
 as that of the ./Egyptians, who held that Isis (or the earth) was 
 born on the fourth day : Plato says, that the component parts 
 of the earth are cubical; that is, composed of quadrangular 
 facets, and that this number four had entered into the procrea- 
 tion of the world : and finally the Chinese, amongst whose ex- 
 travagant pretensions are to be found many interesting notices 
 concerning the nations of the dispersion, formerly believed that 
 the globe which we inhabit was a square : this opinion of the 
 Chinese has been cited as a proof of their ignorance in geogra- 
 phy, but in truth, though the opinion taken in its apparent sense 
 is absurd, in its origin it is far otherwise, for it is evidently de- 
 rived from the primitive philosophy, which supposes the matter 
 of which the earth is formed to have been created in the pro- 
 portion of the number four. 
 
 BOST. 
 
 To the creation of matter succeeded that of term in the pro- 
 portion of number ^re ; matter spread through the immensity 
 of space was the principle of many things and privation of all ; 
 that it might serve for the wise purposes of its creation, the 
 Supreme Author created term to this matter; thus it was sepa- 
 rated into homogeneous portions, the particles of which were 
 united by cohesion. 
 
 The Euscaran language calls the number five bost, a word 
 composed of the letter b, placed in the composition to give 
 fulness to the pronunciation, and of ost, ost-a, which signifies 
 term, (limit, he.) as is seen in the word osta-tu-a, the tavern, 
 literally a thing placed at the term ; and in the word ost-eguna 
 which signifies literally the terminal day, that is the day which 
 terminates the quarter of the moon. 
 
 Our modern physical science is unacquainted with this princi- 
 ple, yet its existence is very obvious to whoever will fix his at- 
 tention on the operations of nature; it is that which determines 
 vegetation, causing the seed placed in the earth amidst hetero- 
 
73 
 
 geneous matter, to preserve its pure essence, and that prevents 
 the intermixture and confusion of the various salts, oils, and 
 rosins which enter into the composition of the stalks, leaves, 
 flowers, and fruits; it is the same which in the animal creation, 
 separates from the alimentary suhstances, the blood, the bile, 
 and all the other humors of the body. 
 
 The Platonicians attributed to this number a variety of excel- 
 lent qualities ; they said amongst other things, that it compre- 
 hended within itself the universe and all beings ; they seem to 
 have tortured their imaginations to discover in the composition 
 of the number the power which they attributed to it, which only 
 belongs to term, of which it is the representation. 
 
 The ^Egyptians, who had formed their theology out of the 
 primitive physical science, said in their Genesis, that the fifth 
 day their god Nepthis was born ; this in physical language means 
 that in the proportion of the number five term was created, for 
 Nepthis is no other than this principle, as the ^Egyptians them- 
 selves have made us understand by material examples.* 
 
 SEI. 
 
 Next to the creation of term, followed that of form in the 
 proportion of the number six, which is called in basque nume- 
 ration sei, this with the characteristic of an appellative noun is 
 sei-a, which signifies the form, as in seia-tu, to make forms. 
 By means of this principle the particles of matter acquired suit- 
 able forms in each work of the creation, of some was composed 
 the earth, of others were the planets, and so on of all inferior 
 existences. Form not only gave to each species the matter 
 which belonged to the purpose for which it was intended, but as 
 a principle to exist as long as the universe, it superintends the 
 reproduction of things so that matter shall not deviate from its 
 primitive form in each species, according to the intention of the 
 Creator. 
 
 The Platonicians, always attributing to the proportions of 
 numbers the power which exists only in the principles repre- 
 sented by them, held this in great respect ; they observed that 
 squared it terminated in itself, that is in thirty six; for the same 
 reason they attributed equal power to the five ; and applying 
 this observation to the operations of nature in vegetation, they 
 attributed to the number six, that the seed in the earth, after 
 passing through various changes, terminated in itself; it was in 
 this course of reasoning, that after observing the harmonies of 
 
 Tlut : de Iside, Nephthyn vocant extrema tcrrae, et iminentia mari. 
 10 
 
74 
 
 nature, they adapted the proportions of numbers (which they 
 also called harmonies) to them, and persuaded themselves that 
 numbers were the principles, not having been able to penetrate 
 that these were but the representation of created principles 
 which embraced the whole of nature. 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 
 Of Numbers — in Continuation. 
 
 SECTION II. — ON THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE OR OF THE PRINCI- 
 PLES AND LAWS OF ITS MOVEMENT. 
 
 The opinion that the world was animated was derived from 
 the primitive ages, transmitted to the people of the dispersion, it 
 became the subject of laborious research to the philosophers of 
 antiquity, who endeavored by means of such traces as remain- 
 ed of the primitive science, to ascertain the essence of that 
 soul which according to their doctrine was the source of all 
 others in animated nature : the primitive societies certainly 
 established such an opinion, though restricted to much more 
 narrow limits; according to the Euscaldunes the world was 
 animated, and contained within itself all the principles necessary 
 for the animation of other beings ; but there is not to be found 
 in any part of their physical doctrine, a single idea that this soul 
 has any other functions than those which direct motion by a 
 merely mechanical instinct, and impress it on the creatures with 
 the instinct appropriate to the organization which each in its 
 species received in its first principle or seed, and with that uni- 
 versal law of conservation which God appointed for the whole 
 creation. Thus we can call this soul sensitive and vegetative, 
 but by no mode rational. 
 
 Pythagoras said that the soul was harmony or the result of 
 the proportion of numbers, also that it was number moved or 
 agitated by itself; his doctrine wholly derived from the basque 
 numeration, is as incorrect in this as in the principles explained 
 
75 
 
 in the last chapter, and the opinion of the primitive people 
 which we will now develope. will not only show the source from 
 whence the orientals derived their celebrated system as to the 
 soul of the universe, but will explain the true principles and 
 proportions which constitute the original doctrine. 
 
 ZASPI. 
 
 The Supreme Author having given to matter term and form, 
 willed laws and suitable proportions to motion also. 
 
 The Pythagoreans and Platonicians when they commenced 
 to build their theory of the soul on what they discovered of it 
 in the primitive philosophy, found motion and matter already 
 formed, but as they had not penetrated the creation of matter, 
 nor comprehended that of motion, (for Pythagoras as we have 
 before seen did not understand the number three in its true im- 
 port,) so they supposed that matter and the soul of the universe 
 were coeternal with God ; and that though these being in a state 
 of confusion, God had given to them order, " nevertheless (say 
 they) he did not give solidity to matter^ nor movement to the 
 soul, nor did he make a body of that which was without a body, 
 or the soul of that which was inanimate." 
 
 Thus those philosophers reasoned, giving us even in their 
 errors an idea of the original from which they deviated. In 
 fact the motion created in the proportion of the number three, 
 was an infinite and unregulated movement ; and matter created 
 in the proportion of the number four and enveloped in this 
 movement, was also a chaos ; both created before the formation 
 of the world and the regulation of movement required new laws 
 to give to them that perfection with which they now act in the 
 grand system of the universe. 
 
 In this state of them God created profundity, the principle 
 which impels and carries bodies towards the centre of the uni- 
 verse ; we call it z-azpi, the name of the number seven, in the 
 proportion of which it was created ; this word is composed of z 
 placed in the composition for fulness in the pronunciation, and 
 azpi, which with the characteristic is azpi-a, signifying a thing 
 beneath; so the greatest force of this principle is in the lowest 
 point of the universe where is the sun, towards which are drawn 
 all the bodies that are above it. 
 
 Thus we see how ancient is this celebrated principle of 
 attraction, which the moderns call centripetal force ; but it is 
 to be observed, that the primitive doctrine did not place this 
 attractive power as we do in the sun, but in the centre of the 
 
76 
 
 universe, in which the principle of profundity resided before 
 the sun had been created. 
 
 Plato said, that seven was the first number of which the soul 
 of the universe was composed, this as we see conforms to the 
 basque numeration, in which profundity represented by this 
 number, is the first ordination of motion. 
 
 The ancients dedicated the number seven to the sun under 
 the name of Apollo* ; the generation of profundity in the pro- 
 portion of the number seven, and the residence of this principle 
 in the centre of the universe which is occupied by the sun, 
 explains the mystery of that dedication. 
 
 ZORCI. 
 
 To the creation of profundity followed that of elevation, m 
 the proportion of the number eight ; this is a principle acting 
 in opposition to profundity by separating bodies from the centre 
 and elevating them towards the fixed ;\ the number eight, as 
 well as the principle which it represents, the basques call z-or-ci 
 a word composed of the initial z, of or-or-a whatever is eleva- 
 ted, and the syllable ci which signifies any thing lineal, making 
 together lineal elevation. 
 
 By this definition in the primitive physical science, it will be 
 seen that the principle of attraction, which we suppose to be a 
 modern discovery, was not only known to the primitive world 
 in profundity, but that the principle of elevation unknown to 
 modern philosophy, established the ancient system on a basis 
 very different from the doctrine admitted in our schools. The 
 primitive world did not suppose that attraction resided in matter 
 as the moderns pretend, but in two forces diametrically oppo- 
 sed to each other, and which thus sustained bodies in space. 
 
 This philosophical opinion of the primitive world as to the 
 universal movement, and the creation of the two opposite prin- 
 ciples of profundity and elevation, became in alter ages a 
 theological dogma amongst the predominant doctrines of gen- 
 tilism, supposing the world to be governed by two gods, one 
 the principal of all good, the other of all evil ; which doctrine, 
 says Plutarch, is so ancient that it is impossible to find its origin ; 
 
 * All the mythologies of the ancients were derived from the East; abun- 
 dant proofs of this are said to exist in the Hindostani. There is not an an- 
 cient absurdity which had not its origin in an absurdity still more ancient, 
 says Condillae. 
 
 f The basque philosophy merely mentions the existence of fixed bodies, 
 that is of other systems above ours ; but does not form any theory respecting 
 them ; their space or eun did not extend beyond our planetary system. 
 
77 
 
 the materialist Senancour says of it, that it came to be moral 
 and theological, and that throvghout all the nations of the East 
 are found undeniable traces of it, as a doctrine taught by 
 a primitive people long bejore the existence of those eastern 
 nations. 
 
 Pythagoras, who received this doctrine in the East as ex- 
 plained by numbers, says that Typhon was an evil power and 
 produced by the number fifty-six ; which is to say that Typhon 
 is the war or opposition of the two principles profundity and 
 elevation represented by the numbers seven and eight ; these 
 multiplied together produce fifty-six, his Typhon ; here then 
 is the solution of this Pythagorean mystery. This doctrine 
 not only spread over the East, but was introduced into the 
 West by the first settlers ; Marcus Mesala of consular rank, 
 and who was an augur in Rome for fifty-five years, says that 
 the Creator of the universe had united the force which directs 
 heavy bodies to the centre with that which elevates them 
 towards the superior regions, and had surrounded them with 
 the heavens. Cicero says that the numbers seven and eight 
 are full numbers, — and Virgil, " Ab lobe principium Musae 
 lobis omnia plena/' The word lobe was a technical word of 
 the primitive physical science, io-ba, signifying any thing in 
 which resides elevation and profundity ; it is composed of 
 io-io-a, rise or elevation, and the letter 6 which with the char- 
 acteristic is ba, and signifies profundity ; this name compre- 
 hending the two forces which fill space and operate in all the 
 works of nature, explains the meaning of Virgil. Homer in 
 his Iliad places attraction in the principle of elevation residing 
 in loba, and supposes this imaginary divinity to say that by a 
 chain fixed in the heavens the earth and the seas are drawn 
 upwards. The opinions of men vary with the course of time; 
 in the age of Homer attraction was in elevation, now it is in 
 profundity; in the opinion of the primitive people it was in 
 both principles. 
 
 BIDERACI. 
 
 There was yet wanting a proper motion of the great soul of 
 the universe, and the planets suspended in space required that 
 proportionate impulse which should carry them round the centre. 
 This motion is that mean force resulting from profundity and 
 elevation, which personified in the oriental cosmogonies, was 
 called Mithras by the Persians, and Isis by the ^Egyptians. 
 
 To the creation then of elevation, succeeded that of the 
 
78 
 
 principle of beauty in the proportion of the number nine, called 
 by the Euscaldunes b-eder-aci, a word composed of the initial 
 b placed in the composition to give fulness to the pronunciation, 
 of cf/er any thing beautiful, and of aci the seed or principle. 
 
 Notwithstanding the various ideas which are formed of beauty, 
 and which depend on different tastes, there is in it a general prin- 
 ciple acknowledged by all men ; we frequently see persons and 
 things which are not handsome according to the general idea of 
 beauty, but which nevertheless excite in us a sentiment of 
 approbation : the principles of nature are perfect, and being 
 harmoniously interwoven with all the existences in this magnifi- 
 cent spectacle of the universe, cannot fail to produce on all of 
 us the same agreeable effect; the principle which produces 
 in us this pleasing sentiment is motion, and it is therefore that 
 the primitive people called whatever is handsome ed-er, a word 
 composed of ed-ed-a a sweet thing, and er which is a note of 
 movement ; these taken together mean that beauty is a soft 
 movement ; and in effect motion is the expression of life, and 
 the well proportioned animation of the several members is that 
 which constitutes the charm of the whole person : it is thus 
 that Virgil, one of the most nice observers of nature, when he 
 represents Venus under disguise presenting herself to her son 
 iEneus near Carthage, does not say as anv ordinary writer 
 would have said, that he knew her by the elegance of her form, 
 or the beauty of her features, but by the grace of her move- 
 ment, — " Vera incessu patuit Dea." 
 
 The motion created in the proportion of the number three 
 was a motion rectilinear and infinite, consequently it could not 
 subsist after the creation of term ; the supreme being then will- 
 ing an infinite motion, but not in infinite space, ordered circular 
 movement, which controling the projectile motion, impelled 
 the planets to revolve round the centre of the universe ; thus 
 according to the primitive doctrine was completed and perfec- 
 tionated the universal movement, producing beauty and harmony 
 in every part of the system. 
 
 The Platonicians pronounced the number nine most perfect; 
 the Chinese considered it as the most fortunate of the numbers ; 
 it was mysteriously celebrated by all the nations of the East ; 
 by the Mexicans it was specially honored ; by the Greeks it 
 was universally respected. All these concurrent testimonies as 
 to the importance of this number, amongst such various nations, 
 must have had a common origin, and this could have been no 
 other than the principle of beauty which the primeval people 
 represented by the number nine. 
 
79 
 
 AMARR. 
 
 All the elements essential to the ordination of matter and 
 motion having been created, there was yet wanting a conserva- 
 tive principle, that motion might not lose of its power, or matter 
 become infecund. It does not comport with the sense which 
 we have of the supreme power, to suppose that it would be 
 perpetually occupied in preserving its work from degradation : 
 we are told that God ceased to work ; " Requievit die septimo 
 ab universo o pere quod patrarat." We are told in the basque 
 numeration that he created the mother of fecundity in the pro- 
 portion of the number ten, which is am-arr, a name composed 
 of am-am-a, the mother, and the patronymic termination arr, 
 or arr-a, equivalent to the Castillian de, (of,) — we all know 
 that the principle of the mother is fecundity ; it is that only 
 which constitutes the mother. 
 
 Pythagoras said that ten was the nature of number ; numbers 
 being the principles of all things, the nature of them must be 
 fecundity, which the primitive doctrine supposes to have been 
 created in the number ten. 
 
 Hitherto no one has been able to explain a mystery observed 
 in the mode of counting which is general amongst nations; 
 when they reach ten, they revert to one, and continue their 
 numeration with ten and one, ten and two, and so onwards ; 
 but now seeing that the Euscaldunes supposed ten to be the 
 principle of fecundity, the explanation becomes obvious ; they 
 made all the other numbers pass through ten or fecundity, to 
 show that they all received from that principle what was ne- 
 cessary to maintain them in the state of plenitude in which God 
 had created them. 
 
 The primitive people have transmitted to us a further proof 
 of the accuracy which they have observed in the representation 
 of ideas by numeration, but on this point they have not been 
 imitated by the nations who have derived their mode of 
 counting from them ; they considered that as the number one 
 was the principle of all things, it could not be fecundified, and 
 consequently that it was absurd to pass bat through ten ; yet it 
 was necessary to place a substitute for it that the harmony of 
 the method might not be disturbed ; they supplied its place 
 then with a name, which united to ten carries the idea that in 
 eleven God had fixed the limit for the principle of fecundity, 
 and instead of calling eleven ama-bat, they called it ama-ic-a. 
 
 There is this further curious particularity to be remarked in 
 our basque numeration, it has a number (one) representing the 
 
80 
 
 father, and a number (ten) representing the mother, or fecun- 
 dity ; by which we are given to understand that God as father 
 is by means of fecundity continually reproducing the princi- 
 ples of things. The Magi of Persia, as well as several nations 
 of the East, who formed their philosophical systems on the 
 remains of the numeral philosophy of the primitive people, 
 admitted the same doctrine; and Zarales, master of Pythago- 
 ras, said that in the generation of all tilings there was a number 
 father, and a number exercising the functions of mother. 
 
 Plato said that God in the creation of things acted as father, 
 not because he had need of the laws of generation, but because 
 by means of another power he infused into matter a prolific 
 principle which gave to it motion. 
 
 OGUEI. 
 
 When all the principles created to the number nine inclusive 
 had passed through fecundity, God created water in the pro- 
 portion of the number twenty; according to the basque nume- 
 ration we call it o-guei, a name composed of o-o-a, which 
 signifies high, and guei, guei-a, which signifies matter, that is 
 the matter of heights. The heights is by antonomatia in all 
 languages the heavens, and the matter of the heavens accord- 
 ing to the primitive philosophy, and even throughout all anti- 
 quity, was supposed to be water. 
 
 All the causes having been created, and the principle of 
 fecundity to preserve them in their entierty, there was yet 
 wanting a vehicle which should carry that fecundity through all 
 parts of nature ; this having been the opinion of the primitive 
 people, they have taught us by their numeration, that as all the 
 numbers or creations pass through the ten, that by this fecun- 
 dity their elements may be preserved as perfect as they were 
 created, so the number ten or fecundity, passes through number 
 twenty or water ; meaning by this, that fecundity being closely 
 connected with that fluid by certain affinities unknown to us, is 
 conducted by it through all parts of the universe : our experi- 
 ence gives extraordinary force to this theory ; wherever water 
 flows, upon however sterile land, there forthwith is produced 
 abundance of life and fertility in a variety of animation and 
 vegetation ; and this could not be, if there did not exist deposited 
 in water fecundity of the principles which are inert or without 
 exercise in matter. 
 
 Thus the primitive people attributed to water the propagation 
 of all things, and as a depository of this universal principle of 
 
81 
 
 fecundity, they determined it to be the nature* (by pre-emi- 
 nence.) From this was derived the opinion of Thales, founder 
 of the Ionic sect, who taught that " water was the principle of 
 all things." 
 
 The doctrine of the primitive physical science, is also that 
 which Moses followed in describing the state of the first crea- 
 tion before God had given order to the universe, " The spirit 
 of God was carried by the waters ;" according to our philoso- 
 phy, Moses meant by the " spirit of God" the principle of 
 fecundity in which resides the life of the universe, and which 
 according to our numeral system is deposited in the water. 
 
 There may be some amongst the professors of physical sci- 
 ence, who calculating the mode of operating of the Supreme 
 Being by our methods, will consider the creation of water be- 
 fore that of its constituent principles to be a very unphilosophical 
 part of the basque system ; but a question raised on this point, 
 would be similar to that of whether the hen was created before 
 the egg or the egg before the hen. Undoubtedly God formed 
 the principles of things to use them in the construction of the 
 universe, but it is not given to our limited capacity to comprehend 
 his mode of operating in all its details ; we must presume that 
 all things were made in an harmonious succession, but who 
 can pretend to know the infinite terms of that succession ? or 
 the various and infinite combinations of matter ? who can dis- 
 tinguish in those combinations results from principles ? for 
 example as to the oxygen and hydrogen gasses of which water 
 is composed ? The primitive doctrine which acquaints us with 
 the creation of water, of course supposes its constituent parts to 
 have been previously formed, and comprehended in matter, not 
 counting them therefore as principles ; for the same reason fire 
 is excluded also frotn the basque numeration, for it was deemed 
 to be the most subtile portion of matter ; of which opinion was 
 also the great Newton. 
 
 Plato said that the parts of which water was composed are 
 icosaedrons ; that is of twenty sides ;* as according to the 
 Euscaldunes water was created in the proportion of the number 
 twenty, and Plato had not penetrated the real sense of that 
 system, so he attributed to the figures formed by this number 
 the generation of water, which in fact was only represented by 
 the number. 
 
 * More correctly speaking of twenty equilateral triangles. 
 11 
 
S2 
 
 EUN. 
 
 The principles of all tilings having been created, there was 
 yet warning a space for nature to display herself in, a void in 
 which the principles being placed and developed in the propor- 
 tion assigned by the Creator, should operate in due harmony 
 the purposes for which they were intended. This was the 
 physical doctrine of the Basques, and to the void they assigned 
 the proportion of the numher hundred ; they placed in it all the 
 force of profundity and elevation, and embraced by it all the 
 modifications of matter, forming a unity of system, so that in 
 the vast machine of the universe there could not be any one 
 portion independent of the rest. 
 
 The basque numeration after it reached twenty as we have 
 before observed, descended to unity, and continued counting by 
 twenties, till it arrived at five of them ; then instead of saying 
 five twenties it said " an hundred" the name of which is E-un, 
 meaning literally a smooth, agreeable space, and is composed 
 of e,-e-a, a thing soft or agreeable or smooth, and of un-un-a, 
 space. 
 
 Every one is aware of the great questions which have been 
 agitated amongst philosophers as to the nature of space, and is 
 acquainted with the theories on this matter which have prevailed 
 in the different schools ; besides those of the ancients, of De- 
 mocritus, Leucippus, Epicurus and Aristotle, we have those of 
 Descartes and Locke, which are familiar to all literary men, 
 the first pretending that space is matter and assuring us with 
 much gravity that God has a horror of a vacuum, and that it 
 cannot exist; the second maintaining the existence of vacuum: 
 this last having become the prevailing opinion, has given birth 
 to that of an absolute vacuum, which is as little to be compre- 
 hended as the other opinion (of a plenum.) 
 
 If space, as our learned men suppose, were an absolute 
 vacuum, or nothing, it is evident that there would be wanting a 
 medium of communication or connexion between the parts of 
 nature and the whole ; each planet would be without relation 
 to the others, and the present harmony of the universe could 
 not exist. If the modern doctrine of gravitation of bodies 
 towards each other be admitted, as for example of the moon 
 towards the earth, how can it be allowed that there is vacuum 
 between them ? il there is a vacuum, where is the conductor 
 of the influences which regulate the movements of the heavenly 
 bodies in the perfect harmony which exists? 
 
 All things in nature arc connected by ,the forces or principles 
 
83 
 
 of profundity and elevation and projection which fill and form 
 the nature of space; and in space, according to the basque 
 system, are incorporated all the existences in the universe, as 
 members of the same body. Those principles or forces not 
 only sustain and give impulse to the bodies of the planets, but 
 are the conductors of light to the extreme limits of the solar 
 system, raise the waters into vapors, support the atmosphere, 
 and finally produce a multitude of phcenomena, all explained 
 according to the basque philosophy, by the influence of those 
 forces which occupy space. 
 
 Our modern astronomers suppose that space is a complete 
 vacuum ; one of the reasons alleged for this opinion is, that the 
 resistance which matter would make to the movement of the 
 planets, would in the course of time arrest that movement. 
 This argument supposes that motion received only a first im- 
 pulse, in virtue of which the planets revolve because this pro- 
 jectile force does not meet in the void with any resistance by 
 which it is weakened. 
 
 The Euscaldunes supposing, as before observed, that fecun- 
 dity is incorporated with water, it is probable that they also 
 thought that the vapors of this fluid existed in space ; though 
 they allowed that the projectile motion was a creation in the 
 proportion of the number nine, they admitted a principle of 
 fecundity always reproducing, supplying waste, and thus pre- 
 serving motion in the full degree of its first impulse ; so that 
 though there be not an absolute vacuum, the force of motion 
 being maintained by reproduction superior to any obstacle 
 opposed to it in space, the planetary movement does not 
 diminish in velocity. 
 
 Plato, who in this part of philosophy followed the doctrine 
 of Pythagoras, which had not penetrated the exact representa- 
 tion of the twelfth creation or number hundred in the basque 
 system, said, that the dodecadron (or solid of twelve sides) had 
 been employed by God in the creation of the universe ; and 
 as the opinion of antiquity supposes this to be globular, he added 
 that the dodecagon contributed to this globular figure ; all 
 which means to explain by figures the doctrine, that space in 
 which exists what we call the world, was the twelfth creation. 
 
 The ^Egyptians also said that the power of the dodecagon 
 (or plane of twelve sides) was of Jove, attributing to the first of 
 the gods the greatest of the creations ; as the two principles of 
 profundity and elevation embrace all space, hence the primitive 
 philosophy said very properly that the twelfth creation, or 
 
84 
 
 space, was of Jove, the signification of which we have before 
 given, (under the head Zorci eight,) and hence also these two 
 forces comprehending all parts of the universe, as God all its 
 forms, antiquity called him Johe, symbolising him by the name 
 of the mos*: noble of his creations, and with the dodecagon 
 or figure of the universe ; and in truth what symbol more suita- 
 ble to the grandeur of the divinity than the universe ; this is 
 the true image of the great Jova, a name celebrated and 
 sacred amongst the Hebrews, ./Egyptians, Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, but the true signification of which has remained till now 
 unknown. 
 
 The number one hundred, in the proportion of which as we 
 have seen was created space, was held in high estimation 
 throughout all antiquity : the history of the gods, which is no 
 other than that of nature, says that Cybele, who is the mother 
 of all, had a hundred grand-children, to indicate that in the 
 number hundred was comprehended all nature. 
 
 Qualis Berecyntia mater 
 
 Invehitur curru, Phrigi/s turrita per urbes 
 Lseta DeumPartu centum complexa nepotes." 
 
 In the same way Argos was fabled to have a hundred eyes, 
 this was a symbol of the starry heavens, which comprehend 
 space, or the number hundred which represents it. 
 
 The number twelve was also held in high estimation as the 
 most perfect number, because space was the twelfth and last 
 creation ; it was supposed to be specially agreeable to God, 
 since in his wisdom he saw fit to limit to this number the prin- 
 ciples which he created for the form and government of the 
 universe : it was for that reason, as is observed by the ecclesi- 
 astical writers, that the Patriarchs (sons of Jacob) were twelve; 
 the tribes of Israel twelve; the Apostles twelve; the fountains 
 of Elihu twelve ; the stones in the pectoral of Aaron twelve ; 
 the columns erected by Joshua twelve ; those who were sent 
 out by Moses to explore the land of promise twelve ; the brazen 
 oxen in the temple of Jerusalem twelve ; the subdivisions of 
 the kingdom of Solomon twelve ; the stones with which Elias 
 made an altar twelve ; and finally, not to prolong this enume- 
 ration, the signs of the zodiac twelve ; and the months of the 
 year twelve. 
 
 MILLA. 
 
 Though with the twelfth terminated the creation of all the 
 principles necessary for the formation of the universe, — still 
 
85 
 
 number progressed, that is to say the principles created con- 
 tinued to extend themselves into the infinity of space. We 
 learn from the primitive numeration, what Empedocles and 
 IMetrodorus (who derived it from the East,) taught in their 
 schools. — that what we call the world is but a small portion of 
 the universe. 
 
 The Basques as soon as they reached the number hundred in 
 their numeral system returned back to unit, and went on thus 
 counting hundreds till they reached nine hundred, and ninety- 
 nine units; there they terminated the extension of number, that 
 is of all the principles of nature, and therefore they placed for 
 the number thousand, the word m-z7Za,that is to say whatever is 
 dead, absolute privation, and whatever quality is analogous to 
 death in the physical order ; this word is composed of the initial 
 m, and of the participle ilia, from the verb ill to die ; the prim- 
 itive societies meant by this name to indicate the term of na- 
 ture and the universe, the absolute privation of all things, the 
 "exterior darkness". of the scripture.* 
 
 Aristotle, who acquired some notions of the primitive opin- 
 ions, differing from all other philosophers of antiquity taught 
 that the principles of things were perpetual motion, matter, and 
 privation; but it is evident that privation cannot be a principle 
 of any thing, and therefore the Basques, though they place 
 in the catalogue of creations the number thousand which repre- 
 sents it, (and from thence was the mistake of Aristotle) give to 
 us in its very definition the true idea which we ought to have of 
 this number, showing that it is not a creature or a principle, but 
 the term of nature. 
 
 I have now explained the basque numeration according to 
 my best comprehension of it ; the examination of this portion 
 of the language presents to our admiration, not only the opin- 
 ions of that epoch in which the Euscaran language had its origin, 
 but the consummate wisdom and ingenuity by which a system 
 was so formed, as to comprehend within thirteen numbers all 
 the most sublime principles of natural philosophy, and so 
 arranged this numeration, as to present at one view the order 
 and connexion of these principles, and of all the harmonies of 
 nature. 
 
 All the academic learning of our time were not equal to the 
 formation of such a system ; none of our philosophers could 
 
 •"Exterior darkness," i. e. beyond our system. St. Matthew, ch. 22, 
 vl3. 
 
S6 
 
 explain a science like this at once so extensive and so delicate, 
 within such narrow and precise limits. 
 
 The Euscaldunes instead of giving in mysterious numeration 
 a progression of number quite insignificant, as is done conven- 
 tionally in all the languages with which we are acquainted, sought 
 it in its origin, and denoted in its denominations, those first 
 causes in which it had its existence ; it is thus that they have 
 presented to us in a numeral table, the most extraordinary phe- 
 nomenon in language which the human genius ever devised. 
 
 Instead of the unmeaning names, one, two, three, he. now 
 used by -all nations, here is the admirable mode of the Euscal- 
 dunes. 
 
 Common 
 
 Basque De- 
 
 Translation. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 nominations. 
 
 
 One, 
 
 Bat, 
 
 The father, or generator. 
 
 Two, 
 
 Bi, 
 
 The line, or longitude. 
 
 Three, 
 
 Iru, 
 
 The lineal motion. 
 
 Four, 
 
 Lau, 
 
 The matter. 
 
 Five, 
 
 Bost, 
 
 The term. 
 
 Six, 
 
 Sei, 
 
 The form. 
 
 Seven, 
 
 Zasp, 
 
 The profundity. 
 
 Eight, 
 
 Zorzi, 
 
 The elevation. 
 
 Nine, 
 
 Bederazi. 
 
 The principle of beauty. 
 
 Ten, 
 
 A marr, 
 
 The mother, or fecundity. 
 
 Hundred, 
 
 Eun, 
 
 The space. 
 
 Thousand. 
 
 Milla, 
 
 The death or privation. 
 
 This most extraordinary monument preserved in the imper- 
 ishable archives of the Euscaran language, cannot fail to en- 
 gage the attention of the learned. Yet I do not present it to 
 the public with the intention of discussing the truth of its prin- 
 ciples, for this is not in the plan of my work ; nor is it my pres- 
 ent purpose to decide on its merits whatever these may be. I 
 leave it to the critics to estimate a document in which we find 
 the chief opinions and principles of the theology and philosophy 
 of the ancient' eastern nations. 
 
 The explanation which I have given of this numeration, and 
 the comparison of it with the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato 
 founded on the numeral philosophy brought to Greece from 
 the East, leaves not any doubt as to their common origin ; nor 
 as to the source from whence were derived the various opinions 
 with respect to the excellent properties of certain numbers, 
 which have prevailed amongst the nations of the dispersion, as 
 
87 
 
 the Hindoos, Chinese, ./Egyptians, Mexicans, &tc. — which na- 
 tions widely separated, and having had no intercommunication 
 since the dispersion, must be supposed to have received these 
 and other traditions which they have in common, from a peo- 
 ple to whom they all owe their origin. 
 
 The several tracts published by myself, and by my most ex- 
 cellent and learned friend Astarloa, have as 1 believe thoroughly 
 convinced every unprejudiced mind that the Euscaran or Basque 
 language was the primitive idiom brought to Spain by its first 
 settlers; nor does there remain the least doubt but that the Gre- 
 cian alphabet was wholly taken from that primitive idiom ; I trust 
 that the conclusive arguments with which I have supported that 
 opinion are irrefragable, and will remain a perpetual proof that 
 the Greeks owed the first elements of their civilization to the 
 Euscaldunes, and not to the Phoenecians as has been hitherto 
 erroneously supposed. It is more especially evident, that the 
 Euscaran language, and of consequence its numeration, existed 
 before the birth of Pythagoras and Plato, consequently that the 
 numeral philosophy which they taught was not their own ; though 
 the profound silence with regard to its origin, which as true 
 Greeks they did not fail to observe, has procured for them in 
 the general opinion the merit of inventors. Whatever compu- 
 tation be admitted as to the time when Spain was originally 
 peopled, it is perfectly evident also that the Euscaran language 
 and its numeration existed many centuries anterior to the Phcene- 
 cian epoch ; this computation brings us to a period approxi- 
 mating that of the deluge; this being so, and as there was but 
 one language common to all the families at the time of their 
 dispersion, it is not possible to suppose that those of them who 
 came to Spain, quitting that idiom formed a new one during 
 all the hardships and labors of their migration ; much less is it 
 to be conceived, that during those years of toils and sufferings, 
 they acquired all the profound knowledge which is comprised 
 in the Euscaran language : if it be true that some of the families 
 of the dispersion did gradually form new idioms, we have 
 already explained the means by which this was effected ; 
 means wholly different certainly from those which must be sup- 
 posed to belong to a nation who could form such a language as 
 the Euscaran ; such a people must be supposed not only to 
 have been preserved from that decline into a state of ignorance 
 and semi-barbarism which necessarily results from a long period 
 of painful and laborious existence, but on the contrary to have 
 made a wonderful progress in the most profound science of 
 nature ; for the Euscaran language is a universal encyclopedia. 
 
88 
 
 We know how many ages it took to restore to civilization the 
 other nations which were buried in ignorance ; but whatever be 
 the degree of ignorance or of civilization in which we are dis- 
 posed to consider the basque people as having been at the time 
 of their arrival in Spain, it is certain that they brought with them 
 the Euscaran language in which existed the principles of all the 
 sciences cultivated by that great nation. 
 
 The supposition then not being admissible that during their 
 migration the basque people forgot their own language, acquired 
 immense knowledge, formed a new language in which to de- 
 posit it, and brought that language into general use ; it follows 
 that the language which they brought to Spain must have been 
 the same which they had in Armenia, and consequently the 
 same that was spoken before the deluge ; but apart from all 
 suppositions, we find conclusive evidence of the fact in the 
 numeration which we have examined. 
 
 It being certain that vestiges of the numeral philosophy are 
 found scattered through various nations who have not had any 
 intercommunication since their separation, we must seek for a 
 common origin of those opinions in a people and a language 
 anterior to the separation ; whatever be that language, the sys- 
 tem of nature in question must necessarily have been explained 
 in its numeration, because in that only could be contained a 
 system wholly founded upon its proportions; and because the 
 very ideas of numbers which all these different nations offer to 
 us, prove that the principles from which they have derived them 
 are founded on the excellences of numeration. Now then arises 
 the question, is there a language which presents to us a nume- 
 ration regulated to the order and proportion in which are placed 
 first causes in the plan of nature, and which at the same time 
 manifests the succession, number, and power of her creations? 
 Not one certainly the basque excepted; this is the only idiom 
 which offers to our examination that sublime plan, and which 
 proves by the method and order of its numeration, that it was 
 the origin of natural philosophy. 
 
 We have seen how erroneous and limited were the ideas of 
 the Orientals transmitted to us by Pythagoras, who had learnt 
 all that was known upon this subject in JEgypt and Persia; and 
 whilst we observe that every part of the Euscaran philosophy 
 proves its originality, we distinctly see how the Eastern nations 
 deviated into error by a misconception of the true meaning of 
 its numeration : all the form and polish which these ideas re- 
 ceived from the great intellectual powers of Pythagoras and 
 
 L.ofC. 
 
S9 
 
 Plato in the systems imagined by them, have not sufficed to 
 establish their theories, nor to prevent their being considered 
 by the moderns as chimerical abstractions full of confusion and 
 obscurity, and wholly foreign to the principles of sound phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 To the learned then may confidently be submitted the ques- 
 tion to what people belongs the honor of having invented the 
 numeral system ? — if they decide, as is to be presumed they 
 will, in favor of the basque people and language, then I leave it 
 to them to fix the epoch in which that great nation cultivated 
 and formed into a system the principles of natural philosophy, 
 and of the other sciences which constitute the basis of their 
 language ; an epoch, which as it is not possible to fix between 
 the time of the dispersion and that of the population of Spain, 
 must of necessity be sought for in ages anterior to the deluge. 
 
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