Court de Gebelin traced its etymology far and wide. He says, it is incontestable that this word is common to us with the ancient Hebrews though it does not come to us from them. We are indebted for it to the English. Cunning _designe chez eux un homme adroit, fin, rusé._ Master Cunning _a fait Maître Gonin_. This word comes from the primitive _Cen_ pronounced _Ken_, which signifies ability, (_habilité_) art, power. The Irish have made from it _Kanu_, I know; _Kunna_, to know; _Kenning_, knowledge, (_science_); _Kenni_-mann, wise men (_hommes savans_), Doctors, Priests. It is a word common to all the dialects of the Celtic and Teutonic; to the Greek in which _Konne-ein_[1] signifies to know (_savoir_) to be intelligent and able &c., to the Tartar languages &c. [Footnote 1: So in the MS.] _Les Anglois associant_ Cunning _avec_ Man, _homme, en font le mot_ Cunning-Man, _qui signifie Devin, Enchanteur, homme qui fait de grandes choses, et qui est habile: c'est donc le correspondant du mot Hebreu_ Gwunen, _Enchanteur, Devin;_ Gwuna, _Magicienne, Devineresse; d'où le verbe_ Gwunen, _deviner, observer les Augures, faire des prestiges. Ne soyons par étonnés,_ says the author, bringing this example to bear upon his system, _de voir ce mot commun à tant de Peuples, et si ancien: il vint chez tous d'une source commune, de la haute Asie, berceau de tous ces Peuples et de leur Langue._ If Mr. Canning had met with the foregoing passage towards the close of his political life, when he had attained the summit of his wishes, how would it have affected him, in his sober mind? Would it have tickled his vanity, or stung his conscience? Would he have been flattered by seeing his ability prefigured in his name? or would he have been mortified at the truth conveyed in the proverbial French application of it, and have acknowledged in his secret heart that cunning is as incompatible with self-esteem as it is with uprightness, with magnanimity, and with true greatness? His name was unlucky not only in its signification, but according to Roman de Vaudemont, in its initial. _Maudit est nom qui par C se commence, Coquin, cornard, caignard, coqu, caphard: Aussi par B, badaud, badin, bavard, Mais pire est C, si j'ay bien remembrance._ Much as the Doctor insisted upon the virtues of what he called the divine initial, he reprehended the uncharitable sentiment of these verses, and thought that the author never could have played at “I love my Love with an A,” or that the said game perhaps was not known among the French; for you must get to x, y, and z before you find it difficult to praise her in any letter in the alphabet, and to dispraise her in the same. Initials therefore, he thought, (always with one exception) of no other consequence than as they pleased the ear, and combined gracefully in a cypher, upon a seal or ring. But in names themselves a great deal more presents itself to a reflecting mind.