ANALYSED. TRANSLATED AND COMMENTED UPON, Crawford, Alexander William Lindsay, Crawford By(ALEX. EARL OF CRAWFORD & BALCARRES, "As those who unripe veins in mines explore Till Time digests the yet imperfect ore; DRYDEN. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1872. The right of Translation is reserved. ΤΟ MRS. JAMES LINDSAY, IN SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE OF TWO WHITE DAYS SPENT MANY YEARS AGO TOGETHER AMONG THE RUINS OF ANCIENT ETRURIA. Liberina 5-21-27 15081 PREFACE. THIS volume was written and prepared for the press with a view to private circulation, and in the hope that others more competent than myself would take up the subject and work it out. My object was not (properly speaking) to give an accurate interpretation of the Etruscan inscriptions, but to shew that the language employed in those inscriptions was an ancient form of German, in corroboration of an argument derived from independent sources to prove that the Etruscans were a branch of the Teutonic race. My reason for publishing it is this, that in a work which I am about to issue on a much more important subject I have employed the ancient German as an instrument of etymological and mythological com parison and analysis in a manner which can only be justified by adduction of proof that the language stands upon a par in point of antiquity and importance with Greek and Latin, Zendic and Sanscrit, and that its written, or rather engraved monuments are centuries older than the Gospels of Ulphilas. Such proof is, I trust, afforded by the contents of the ensuing pages. DUNECHT, 16th October, 1872. |