Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/49

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

( 41 )

Inclytiſſimus Rex Brytonum, & ità conſolidavit, & confœderavit regnum Britanniæ univerſum ſemper in unum. This Law of the Anniverſary Folkmote Arthur Invented, who was heretefore the moſt Renowned King of the Brytons, and thereby he conſolidated, and confederated together the whole Realm of Britany for ever as One Man.

It is good to Honour the Founders of all Uſeful Conſtitutions; and I believe that K. Arthur was the Inventor of this as to this Realms becauſe theſe Laws of K. Edward ſay ſo: And ſo was Cadmus the Inventor of Letters in Greece, though we can trace them out of Phœnicia; and the Letters ſpeak for themſelves. For if Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth in one Place, and in the ſame Order it is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta the other Place, then we are ſure there has been an Underſtanding and Communication. For it is impoſſible to be otherwiſe when the Alphabets are ſettled on both Sides, by being their Numeral Letters; as it was plainly in King David’s Time by the Octonaries of the 119th Pſalm as it ſtands in the middle of the Bible; and as it was in Homer’s Time in Greece; or elſe the Old Scholiaſts have deceived me, who ſay that Homer purpoſely couched the Number of all his Books in the firſt Word of his Illiads ΜΗ νιν ἀεισε ξεά.

I
Which