The Analytical Review, or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, on an Enlarged Plan (Volume 19) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1794. Excerpt: ... trhlverfal through the tvhole orbis romanus, yet could not at all times succeed. They conquered Greece, but they did not make their language triumph there, as well as their arms. 4 Jt is said, that under the reign of the emperor Valens, in rhe year 369, Ulphilas, bishop of those goths who were settled in Maesia and Thrace, translated the Bible into the gothic language, and that he first taught thrse mxso goths letters. A fragment of this identical version of Ulphilas was many years ago discovered in the abbey of Werden in Westphalia, In examining it, the letters were fonndto be in every respect dissimilar to the runic character. Their numbers were likewise twenty-five, whereas the runic were only sixteen, and it was formed, with slight variations, from the capitals of the-greek and latin alphabet. This fragment, which is now preserved i- the library of Upsal in Sweden, is known by the name of Codex Argenteus, the letters "feeing all of silver, except the initials, which are of gohl: and what is still more singular, these "very letters appear, riot to have been written with a pen, but to have been stamped, or imprinted on the vellum, with hot metal types, in the fame manner as the backs of books are lettered. The runic character thus itright have had a being previous to the introduction of Christianity. Ulphilas also might have been entitled to the honour of inventing a new character, as he might not have chosen to employ, in to sacred a work as rhb translation of the Bible, the letters which the goths had, in his-eyes, rendered infamous by superstition. Moreover, it is not the least impracticable method of instilling new principles, to introduce a new way of writing, and thereby to render the old method mysterious and unintelligible. Many insta..