manners so soon as they arrive at a new Country,
neither are they naturaliz'd, but with time and by degrees become masters
of the Air, humors, and qualities of the persons with whom they converse.

Since then this corruption is but of a graduall and intensible growth,
there is a necessitie, for its more certain discovery, of an orderly
reflection upon the very first beginnings of the differences, being in the
interim very sollicitous to prevent a false retreat that might either
ingage me too farr, or else in some unluckie circumstances, from which it
would be no little difficulty to retire. And this seems to be the only way
that I could find out to scatter a certain Air and appearance of truth upon
all that regard the present subject, which hath no farther a probability
then what is given it from such a carefull mannagement, that shall suffer
no pass from one extreame to the other without touching upon that mean
which is as it were the time of communication between both, for it is from
this chain of words and sequel of alterations that all the suitablenesse,
and likelyhood of this present method principally depends.

Although in reality there is no reason to doubt but that the French is a
corruption of the Latine, I could not however very easily perswade my selfe
that the word _dechoir_ should derive its selfe from _cadere_ of the
Latines, if I did not perceive all its severall and distinct conveiances
through the Alembic. They that first corrupted the Language of the _Romans_
instead of _cadere_ made use of _cader_, as the Italians do to this day,
who commonly cut off the final vowels where they obseve them to follow
Liquids. They that came after proceeded yet farther in their retrenchment,
and from _cader_ form'd _caer_, as the Spaniards now use it, by taking away
the letter _d_ according to their ordinary custome, when it is seated in
the middle of words. There are another sort of people yet more sturdy and
blunt in their formes of speech, who would say _Car_ or _Ker_ by a
contraction of the two Vowels into one, as is observable among the Peasants
of France, and those of Picardy, who retain very much of Antiquity, which
seems to be agreeable with the manner of speech among the Ancient French,
who delighted to shorten and contract their words as much as possible, that
they might make up a Language altogether as free as their humour, some of
the most remote of these would instead of _Ker_ pronounce _Cher_ by a
change of