Series 1 > Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with his observations on public affairs and other memoranda, 1665-1676

ANTIQUITY OF LANGUAGE
81
6 liv. 10 souse (it hath, solus populi est supremo lex): the
new Jacobus, which we cal the 20 shiling sterling peice, 12 fra :
then Flandres gold. The Scotes croune of gold, which hath on
the one syde Maria D. G. Regina Scotorum, passes for 4 livres
5 souse.1 Then he hath the Popes money, which hath Peter and
Paul on the one syde and the Keyes, the mitre and 3 flies on
the other, some of it coined at Avignon, some at Rome. Then
the gold of Bologne, Milan, Venise, Florence, Parma, Avoye,
Dombes, Orange, Besan^on, Ferrare, Lucque, Sienne, Genes,
Savoye, Geneve, wt that about the syde, lux oritur post tene-
bras : Lorraine, Liege, Spinola, Mets, Frise, Gueldres, Hongry,
L’empyre, Salbourg, Prusse, Provinces Unies wt this, concordia
res parvce crescunt, Ferrare and then of Turquie, which is the
best gold of them al, its so fine it wil ply like wax : the armes
wtin consistes of a number of caracters iust like the Hebrew.
Thus for the Gold. As to mony it hath al the several realles
of the Spaniard, as of al the Dolles or Dollers of the Empire
wt the silver of al their neighbouring nations. Our shiling2 is
ordained to passe for 11 souse.
Goropius Becanus in hes Origines Antwerpianas would wery
gladly have the world beleive that the Cimbrick or Low Dutch
is the first language of the world, that which was spoken in
Paradise; finally that the Hebrew is but a compond ishue of it
because the Hebrew seimes to borrow some phrases and words
of it when in the interim 3 it borrows of none. This he layes
doune for a fondement and as in confesso, which we stiffly and
on good ground denieng, al his arguments wil be found to split
on the sophisme petitionis principii.
The ground upon which the Phrygians vendicats their
langage for the anciennest is not worth refuting, to wit that
these 2 Children that Psammeticus King of Egypt caused
expose so that they never hard the woice of man: the first
thing ever they cried was bee, which in the Phrygian language,
as also in old Low Dutch (so that we have to do wt Goropius
heir also, who thinks this to make mutch to his cause) signifies
bread, is not worth refuting, since they might ether light on
1 For a comparison of these values, see Introduction, p. xliii.
2 Here the shilling sterling.
3 When in fact. So again p. 85.
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