fally allowed, as as to need no farther difcourfe about them. Skinner fays" IF (in agro Linc. Gif) ab as. Lip. Si. "Hoc a verbo Lipan, dare, q. d. Dato." Lye, in his edition of Junius, fays-" Haud inscitè "Skinnerus, qui deduxit ab a. s Lipan, dare, q. d. Dato." GIF is to be found not only, as Skinner fays, in Lincolnshire, but in all our old writers. G. Douglas almost always uses Gif: once or twice only he has ufed If; once he uses GEWE, and once GIFFIS, and fometimes IN CASE and IN CAIS for GIF. "GIF luf be vertew, than is it leful thing; Douglas. Prol. to 4th boke. Pag. 95. "Thocht fum wald fwere, that I the text haue waryit, "Or that I haue this volume quite myscaryit, "Or threpe planelie, I come neuer nere hand it, Douglas Preface, Pag. 11. "Be "Be not quer studyous to spy ane mote in myn E, "Now hark schirris, thare is na mare ado: "Quha lift attend, GYFFIS audience and draw nere." Douglas Preface, Pag. 12. Chaucer commonly uses IF; but fometimes YEUE, YEF and YF. "Lo here the letters felid of thys thyng "That I mote beare in all the haste I may; "YEUE ye woll ought unto your fonne the kyng, "I am your feruaunt bothe nyght and day." Chaucer. Man of Lawes tale. Fol. 22. Pag. 1. Col. 2. And therfore he of full auisement "Nolde neuer write in non of his fermons "Of fuche unkynde abhominacions "Ne I ne wol non reherce, YEF that I may." Chaucer. Man of Lawes prologue. Fol. 18. Pag. 2. Col. 1. "She was fo charytable and so pytous "She wolde wepe YF that fhe fawe a mous "Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde." Prol. to Canterbury tales. Prioreffe. And it is to be obferved that in Chaucer and in other old writers, the verb to GIVE fuffers the fame variations in the manner of writing and pronouncing it, whether used conjunctively or otherwise: as does alfo the Noun derived from it. "And after on the daunce went Largeffe, that fet al her entent "For to ben honorable and free, "Of Alexanders kynne was fhe, "Whan that the YAFE, and fayd: Haue this. "Not Auarice the foule caytyfe "Was halfe to grype so ententyfe "As Largeffe is to YEUE and fpende, "And god alway ynowe her fende, "Were wholy to her bandon brought "So wel with YEFTES hath fhe wrought." Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rofe. Fol. 125, P. 2. C. 1. "A wyfe is goddes YEFTE verely ← Al other maner YEFTES hardely "As londes, rentes, pafture, or commune "That paffen, as a fhadowe on a wall "A wyfe wol laste and in thyn house endure "Wel lenger than the lyft parauenture.” Chaucer. Marchauntes tale. Fol. 28. Pag. 2. Col. 2. *FORGIFF me, Virgill, GIF I thee offend." X Douglas. Preface. Pag. 11. "GIF LA "GIF us thy anfueir, quharon we fal depend." Douglas, 3d booke, Pag. 70. "And fuffir Tyrianis, and all Liby land "Be GIF in dowry to thy son in hand." Douglas, 4th booke, Pag. 103. "In the mene tyme, of the nycht wache the cure "We GIF Meffapus." Douglas, 9th booke, Pag. 280. In Henry the viith's will, dated 1509, you will also find YEVE ufed where we now employ GIVE: and in the time of Queen Elizabeth it was written in the fame manner. "YEOVEN under our fignet." Lodge's Illuftrations. The Queen to Sir W. Cecil and "YEVEN under our feale of our order, the firft day of April 1566, the eight year of our reign." Lodge's Illustrations. Quene Elizabeth to the Erle of Sherowsbury, Vol. 1. Pag. 362. GIN is often used in our Northern counties and by the Scotch, as we ufe IF or AN: which they do with equal Ray fays" Gin, Gif, in the old Saxon is Gif; from whence the word "If is made per aphærefin literæ G. Gif, from the verb Gifan, dare; "and is as much as Dato." propriety propriety and as little corruption: for GIN is no other than the participle Given, Gien, Gin. (As they also use Gie for Give, and Gien for Given, when they are not used conjunctively.) And boc dato is of equal conjunctive value in a fentence with Da boc. "Then wi' his fpear he turn'd hir owre, "O GIN hir face was wan! "He turn'd her owre and owre again, "O GIN hir skin was whyte." Percy's Reliques, Vol. i. Edom o'Gordon. Even our Londoners often pronounce Give and Given in the fame manner: As " If my So Wycherly, Love in a Wood, Act V. "daughter there should have done fo, I wou'd not have gi'n her a groat." AN. I do not know that AN has been attempted by any one, except S. Johnson: and, from the judicious distinction he has made between Junius and Skinner I am perfuaded that Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning, and Skinner. "in rectitude of understanding. Junius was accurately skilled in all the |