Excerpt from The Etruscans

Scattered throughout the writings of the Greek and Latin lexicographers, antiquaries, and historians, there are certain Etruscan words, about forty in number, which have led me to ask, "Were the Etruscans Celts?" These words are more valuable than the words of the Etruscan inscriptions, for not only do the writers declare them to be Etruscan, but they add to each its equivalent in Latin or Greek. In the present inquiry, therefore, two facts in evidence are thus assured - the form of the Etruscan word, and its signification; and from these we wish to find a third - its origin and parentage. Now, if we take these forty words and apply to them individually the touchstone of philology, we may expect them to reveal their nationality and lineage; for the instrument of our investigation is an Ithuriel's spear; it has on other occasions shown its power to detect the disguises which words assume, and to unfold the secrets of the world of language. If our touchstone, when applied to the Etruscan materials, has hitherto failed to show their true character, or to determine their language affinities, yet the test is truthful, although the method of its application has been faulty. In scientific experiment, a negative result flows not from some defect in the operation of the laws of matter, but from a careless or unphilosophic application of them on the part of the inquirer.

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