ABSTRACT
As to the grammatical part of it, I will say it is much exceeding what I expected from an advertisement of it three times repeated in the public papers ... In orthography he is not quite so correct as one might expect; for sure the hackney'd word Phaenom· ena is become too common to admit of the excuse, Graecum est, non potest legi. However our author is resolved to be right by hook or by crook, and therefore spells it every way it can be spelt, viz. Phoenomena, Phaenomena, and Phenomena. As to the word Tellarium, I protest that I can find it in no dictionary, nor can I derive it from any one, or all the languages together, I ever heard of. His Eskimios for Eski·
BENJAMIN MARTIN THE LINGUIST 123
naux [sic), Kanton for Canton, Antego for Antegua, and a hundred others. will astonish nobody that has read this peculiar book. (Martin 1766, as quoted by Millbum 1976:139-40)
A planitarium with wheel work mounted on a brass pillar & claw'd stand &c. A lunarium to ditto A tellurian to ditto.
