Brinton.] [Feb. 7, fixes, both to personal and place names, as Vel-aori, Vel-suna, the Etr. goddess Vol-tumna, the family names Vel-usna, Vel-ce, Velimna, the prænomens Vel, Vel-our, and many others. They occur with equal frequency in the Libyan epigraphy, as Vol (Ins. 167, 200), Volt (Ins. 146, 148), in Volux, son of the Numidian Bocchus (Sallust, Jugurtha, 105), etc. $6. Proper Names from Corippus. A. Cresconius Corippus was an African bishop who lived at the court of Justinian, and wrote a description, in good Latin verse, of the successful campaign of Johannes, a proconsul, against the Mauritanians, about 550. His epos, called the Johannis, is peculiarly valuable for my purpose on account of the numerous Libyan proper names it contains, defaced no doubt by forcing them into smooth Latin forms, but often recognizable in their radicals. In comparing them with the Etruscan onomasticon we must remember that nearly 1800 years had brought their changes on Libyan speech since the Etruscan colonists quitted the African shores. I shall not undertake to do more than present a list of names from Corippus, side by side with others from Corssen's Sprache der Etrusker, to illustrate their strong phonetic resemblance and occasional identity. To discover their etymology and signification is a task I must leave to future students. Comparison of Libyan personal names from Corippus with Etruscan personal names from Corssen: The word clan in the above list appears on a hundred or more Etruscan sepulchral inscriptions. It has been generally translated "son" (see Müller, Die Etrusker, Bd. i, p. 502, note of Deecke). Sometimes it appears as klan, or simply cl; clen is an occasional variation. In this word the vowel of the first syllable has been syncopated, as Deecke has pointed out was exceedingly common both in pure Etruscan words and those drawn from the Greek (see his note and examples in Müller, Etrusker, Bd. ii, p. 333). The full reading should therefore be kel-an. This explanation discloses at once the sense of the word by means of the Libyan tongue. There the word kel means household, one family, those dwelling in one tent or Brintou.] [Feb. 7, home. The Etruscan clan, or clens, should be translated "of the home of," "of the family of," or something to that effect; not necessarily a son. 7. Place Names. The place names handed down to us from Etruscan times offer peculiar difficulties in etymology, for it is very likely that the immigrant Libyans who founded the Etruscan State generally adopted the geographical names they found locally current, and only exceptionally applied others from their own tongue. In some Italian examples we may be tempted to recognize Libyan roots. Thus, in Arbona, Arretium, Arno, Arna (near Perugia), etc., there may lurk the Libyan ar, mountain. This is rendered more probable by the Etruscan name for the Atlas mountains, or their mythical hero Atlas, which was Aril, where we can scarcely err in recognizing the root ar (Müller, Die Etrusker, Bd. ii, s. 113). M. Rinn believes with Dr. Shaw that the geographical name Tadertos, Tudepta, is identical with the Berber taddert, a village or town of stone houses.* Many Etruscan remains have been discovered there, proving that it was one of their settlements (Müller, Etrusker, Bd. i, s. 98). In the name of the very ancient Etr. city called by the Latins Caere, in Etr. zaire, we seem to have the Berber gari or gheri, a fortified town or city. An extended examination of these place names offers yet greater difficulties than of the personal names, and I shall not undertake it at present. Should the above comparative notes of Etruscan and Libyan proper nouns indicate a recognizable relationship between the two tongues, other students will soon be found, with larger command of material, to carry out the comparison and to ascertain what closeness of origin a prolonged investigation is capable of revealing. *As distinguished from adouwar, a village of tents. Dictionaire Français-Berbere, s. v., village. See also Rinn, Les Origines Berbères, p. 195. 1890.] [Lesley. Obituary Notice of Charles Albert Ashburner. By J. P. Lesley. (Read before the American Philosophical Society, February 21, 1890.) Born at Philadelphia, February 9, 1854, and graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, June, 1874, Mr. Ashburner was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society January 16, 1880. Proud of this honor, as he justly esteemed it, he took the liveliest interest in the history, the principles and the meetings of the Society, and became the personal friend of its members, all of whom can testify to the vivacity of his zeal for science, to the geniality of his nature, and to his honor as a gentleman. Those of them who cultivated or who practiced geology, whether in its abstract or in its applied forms, will easily join me in testifying to his ability as a geologist. But no one can relate so confidently and precisely his short, brilliant career of student, field-worker, explorer, discoverer and publisher of physical truths in this branch of science, as one to whom he gave his unbroken friendship for nearly twenty years, one who received from him a thousand benefits. My gratitude for his life equals my grief at his death, and any eulogium my fellow-members accord to me the privilege of giving to his memory will seem cold and empty in comparison of his deserts; for by such examples we learn by heart the lesson, that praise of a wise good man must, after all, be left to the good and wise Creator who invented him. This learned and ancient Society is one of the few that refuse to be chained to the service of the purely material and useful sciences; one of the few that, in these modernest times, still avouch a willingness to discuss the supernatural; to investigate the invisible and impalpable; to philosophize on the functions of soul as well as body; to protect from destruction and oblivion the claims of human virtue to precede wit and work. Therefore we hold to our traditions, and, in our quarterly elections, we prefer to the question: "Is the candidate for membership a genius or an expert?" the more important question: "Is he a just and honorable gentleman?" A genuine respect for Christianity still lingers in this hall of science; and when we place on record a memorial of some member lately lost to our meetings, we recall with more satisfaction the pleasures which his actually admirable character has contributed to our social intercourse than the profit which accrued to us from his contributions to our Transactions and Proceedings, or even than the fame which he may have won for himself and for the Society. Governed by this, the real genius of our Society, I put in front of all Mr. Ashburner's virtues his virtue itself; in short, his Christian character, his rooted love of his kind, of just dealing, of exact truthfulness, his honesty, his generosity, his amiability, his respect for the rights and sympathy with the wrongs of other men; qualities which, in him, I know by long Lesley.] [Feb. 21, and close acquaintance with him were not words, but things; not theoretical, but practical; and of these things I could reveal many instances not known to nor suspected by others. He had an exceedingly sweet and gentle nature. Had it not been for these fundamental and innate principles of character his irritable, nervous temperament would have done him and others a world of mischief. His master passion, I think, was the desire of fame; he loved above all things to be correctly understood and well and widely esteemed, but I never knew him to sacrifice either truth or justice to this passion; and I have often had occasion to wonder at the pleasure which he took, in the most child-like way, in the genuine fame of other men, even when they were his competitors. He had the great good fortune of possessing ambition as a virtue and not as a vice; and the line which his ambition took was a conduct in life having for its object the establishment of a universal confidence not so much in his ability as in his trustworthiness. It was successful. All worthy men who knew him well came to the point of trusting him implicitly, and the satisfaction he took in this was touching to those who loved him, it was so naïve, so simple hearted, so truly beautiful. In this Society, among whose members are so many religious men, I can venture to add that Mr. Ashburner was a religious man without derogating from his reputation as a philosopher. He was a zealous Protestant Episcopalian, and, when a young man, was an active worker in Trinity Church, West Philadelphia, showing great ability as a teacher of a large men's Bible class; and, when he moved to Pittsburgh, he became at once connected with Calvary Church." I quote these words from The Churchman as part of the record of his life. The writer goes on to say: "Here, as elsewhere, and in everything he did, he illustrated how a scientific student can be an earnest Christian believer, and an indefatigable man of business can find time to do Christian work and show an interest in all Church matters. It was characteristic alike of his nature, thoughtfulness and Christian character, that one of his last acts, when death was fast approaching, was to send a contribution to his rector to be used for benevolent purposes; and his devout spirit is equally attested in the fact that he received with quiet joy just before he died the memorial of his Lord's death." Of all this I know nothing as a churchman and nothing from my personal intercourse with him, for we never broached between us a single bottle of that hot wine, theology; I respecting the genuine spiritual convictions of a young man born and bred in "The Church," and he knowing perfectly that I accepted no creed for more than a human invention, and thought no better of a good man who taught an Episcopalian Bible class than of a good man who sent in an exact record of an oil-well boring. It was quite enough for me to know that he was growing year by year into the likeness of the man Christ Jesus; and for him, that he knew that I knew it. On that basis, all our intercourse proceeded happily. And on that basis, I feel sure, rose slowly and steadily the fine structure of his |