Maitland Club > Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart

LOGOPANDECTEISION. 315
would have made use of them for the recovery of his inheritance ; nor had some men-
tion of artillery been omitted in the books of the Macchabees.
67. Pancerola's Treatise De novis adimpertis, although Polydor Virgil were totally
forgot, would be, had there been no new thing since Solomon penn'd Ecclesiastes, but
as a discourse of platonick reminiscences, and calling to minde some formerly lost
fancies.
68. Truly, I am so far from being of the opinion of those archaeomanetick coxcombs,
that I really think there will alwayes be new inventions where there are excellent
spirits.
69. For, as I ascribe unto my self the invention of the trissotetrall trigonometry,
for facility of calculation by representatives of letters and syllables, the proving of the
equipollencie and opposition both of plaine and modal enunciations by rules of geome-
try, the unfolding of the chiefest part of philosophy by a continued geographical alle-
gory, and above a hundred other severall books on different subjects, the conceit of so
much as one whereof never entered into the brains of any before my self, although
many of them have been lost at Worcester fight, so am I confident that others after
ms may fall upon some strain of another kind, never, before that, dreamed upon by
those of foregoing ages.
70. Now to the end the reader may be more enamored of the language, wherein I
am to publish a grammer and lexicon, I will here set down some few qualities and ad-
vantages peculiar to it self, and which no language else, although all other concurred
with it, is able to reach unto.
7 1 . First, There is not a word utterable by the mouth of man, which, in this lan-
guage, hath not a peculiar signification by it self, so that the allegation of Bliteri by
the Summulists will be of small validity.
72. Secondly, Such as will harken to my instructions, if some strange word be pro-
posed to them, whereof there are many thousands of millions, deviseable by the wit of
man, which never hitherto by any breathing have been uttered, shall be able, although
he know not the ultimate signification thereof, to declare what part of speech it is ; or
if a noun, unto what predicament or class it is to be reduced, whether it be the sign
of a real or notional thing, or somewhat concerning mechanick trades in their tooles or
tearmes ; or if real, whether natural or artificial, complete or incomplete ; for words
here do suppone for the things which they signifie, as when we see my Lord General's
picture, we say, there is my Lord General.
73. Thirdly, This world of words hath but two hundred and fifty prime radices,
upon which all the rest are branched ; for better understanding whereof, with all its
dependant boughs, sprigs, and ramelets, I have before my Lexicon set down the divi-
sion thereof, making use of another allegory, into so many cities, which are subdivided
into streets, they againe into lanes, those into houses, these into stories, whereof each
room standeth for a word ; and all these so methodically, that who observeth my pre-