[130] Avienus lived in the fourth century.
[131] “Melius (Hiberniæ quam Britanniæ) aditus—portusque per commercia et negociatores cogniti” (Tacit. vit. Agricol. 499).
[132] “Plus in metum quan in spem.”
[133] “ὥσπερ και των Βρεττανων τους οικοντας την ονομαζομενην Ιριν.” Diod Sic. lib. v.
[134] In proof of this, I aver that I could go through the whole range of their language, and prove that in its fabrication, so punctilious was their regard to euphony, they scrupled not to cancel or otherwise obnebulate the essential and significant letters of the primitive words; so that, in a few generations, their descendants were unable to trace the true roots of their compounds. Hence that lamentable imperfection which pervades all our lexicons and dictionaries, and which can never be rectified but by the revisal of the whole system, and that by a thorough adept in the language of the Irish.
[135] I say strangled, because Irin is a compound word embracing within its compass two distinct parts, of which Iris could give but the spirit of one.
[136] “Iren perrexit ut et aliorum Doctorum sententias in philosophicis atque divinis litteris investigator curiosus exquireret” (Vita Gildæ, cap. 6).
[137] Lib. x. Anno 1098.
[138] Modern writers upon Persia, who would refine upon the matter, have perverted this word to Pehlivi; but look you into the early numbers of the Asiatic Researches, and there you will find it spelled as above.
[139] Besides, to speak accurately, this is not a western country at all, or only so relatively to Britain, Gaul, and that particular line.