How was this? Why, in
order to have an opportunity of holding up pseudo-critics by the
tails, he wilfully spelt various foreign words wrong--Welsh words,
and even Italian words--did they detect these misspellings? not one
of them, even as he knew they would not, and he now taunts them
with ignorance; and the power of taunting them with ignorance is
the punishment which he designed for them--a power which they might
but for their ignorance have used against him. The writer besides
knowing something of Italian and Welsh, knows a little of Armenian
language and literature; but who knowing anything of the Armenian
language, unless he had an end in view, would say, that the word
sea in Armenian is anything like the word tide in English? The
word for sea in Armenian is dzow, a word connected with the
Tebetian word for water, and the Chinese shuy, and the Turkish su,
signifying the same thing; but where is the resemblance between
dzow and tide? Again, the word for bread in ancient Armenian is
hats; yet the Armenian on London Bridge is made to say zhats, which
is not the nominative of the Armenian noun for bread, but the
accusative: now, critics, ravening against a man because he is a
gentleman and a scholar, and has not only the power but also the
courage to write original works, why did you not discover that weak
point? Why, because you were ignorant, so here ye are held up!
Moreover, who with a name commencing with Z, ever wrote fables in
Armenian? There are two writers of fables in Armenian--Varthan and
Koscht, and illustrious writers they are, one in the simple, and
the other in the ornate style of Armenian composition, but neither
of their names begins with a Z.
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