vented, printing was brought to perfection in France, by the illustrious Robert Stephen and his son Henry; who were not only the greatest of printers, but also the most learned men of modern times; and to whom, for their beautiful and correct editions of the Classics, and for their dictionaries of the Greek and Latin tongues, every modern scholar is under very great obligations. SECTION III. Essentials of Language. 53. How many sorts of words are necessary in language? And what is the nature and use of each particular sort? When we have answered these two questions, we may be supposed to have discussed the present subject. In English, there are ten sorts of words, which are all found in the following short sentence- I now see the good < man coming; but, alas! he walks with difficulty.' I and he are pronouns; now is an adverb; see and walks are verbs; the is an article ; good, an adjective; man and difficulty are nouns, the former substantive, the latter abstract; coming is a participle; but, a conjunction; alas! an interjection; with, a preposition. That no other sorts of words are necessary in language will appear, when we have seen in what respects these are necessary. * 54. OF NOUNS. A noun, or, as it is less properly called, a substantive, is the name of the thing spoken of. Without this sort of word, men could not speak of one another or of any thing else. Nouns, therefore, there must be in all languages. Those which denote a genus, as animal, or a species, as man, may be applied either to one or to many things, and must therefore be so contrived as to express both unity and plurality. But a noun which is applicable to one individual only, and which is commonly called a proper name, cannot, where language is suited to the nature of things, have a plural. Proper names, therefore, when they take a plural as well as a singular form, cease to be proper names, and become the names of classes or tribes of beings: so that, when one says duodecim Cesares, the twelve Cæsars, the noun is used as an appellative common to twelve persons. Two numbers, the singular and plural, are all that are necessary in language. Some ancient tongues, however, as the Hebrew, the Celtic, and the Attic and poetic dialects of the Greek, have also a dual number to express two; but this is superfluous. And some nouns there are, in every language perhaps, that have no singular, and some that have no plural, even when there is nothing in their signification to hinder it: this is irregular and accidental. 55. Another thing essential to nouns is gender, to signify sex. All things are either male, or fe male, or both, or neither. Duplicity of sex being uncommon and doubtful, language has no expression for it in the structure of nouns, but considers all things, and all the names of things, as mascu line or feminine, or as neuter; which last word denotes neither feminine nor masculine. Of all things without sex the names in some languages, particularly English, are, or may be, neuter: in Latin and Greek, and many other tongues, the gender of nouns denoting things without sex is fixed by the termination of the noun, or by its declension, or by some other circumstances too minute to be here specified. 56. Things without sex have sometimes masculine or feminine names from a supposed analogy which they seem to bear to things that have sex. Thus, on account of his great power, Death is masculine in Greek, and in English has been called the king of terrors. But this does not hold universally. In Latin, and many other languages, Death is feminine; and in German, and some other northern tongues, the sun is feminine, and the moon masculine. Sometimes the name of an animal species is both masculine and feminine; which, however, implies nothing like duplicity of sex, and means no more than that the name belongs to every individual of the species, whether male or female. 57. When the sex of animals is obvious, and material to be known, one name is sometimes given to the male, and another to the female; as king, queen; son, daughter; man, woman, &c. When the sex is less obvious, or less important, as in insects, fishes, and many sorts of birds, one name serves for both sexes, and is masculine or feminine according to the custom of the language. And here let it be remarked, once for all, that in what relates to the gender of nouns, and indeed in almost every part of the grammar of every language, certain arbitrary rules have been established, which cannot be accounted for philosophically, from the nature of the thing; which, therefore, it belongs not to universal grammar to consider; and for which no other reason can be given, than that such is the law of the language as custom has settled it. 58. OF PRONOUNS. The name given to this class of words sufficiently declares their nature; they being in all languages put pro nominibus, in the place of nouns or of names. Persons conversing together may be ignorant of one another's names, and may have occasion to speak of things or persons, absent or present, whose names they either do not know, or do not care to be always repeating. Words therefore there must be, to be used instead of such names; and withal to ascertain the gender, situation, and some other obvious and general circumstances of the things or persons spoken of. These words are called pronouns. Some of them may introduce a sentence, and are therefore called prepositive, as I, thou, he, she, this, that, &c. Others are termed subjunctive or relative, because they subjoin a clause or sentence to something previous, as qui, quæ, quod, who, which, that. This sort of pronoun has the import of both a pronoun and a copulative conjunction, and may be resolved into et ille, et illa, ét illud. 59. In conversation, the person who speaks is first and chiefly attended to, and the person spoken to is next. Hence ego, I, is called the pronoun of the first person; tu, thou, of the second; and, as distinguished from these, he, she, and it, are called pronouns of the third person. Those of the first and second need no distinction of gender, as the sex of the speakers is obvious to each other from the voice, dress, &c. But the pronoun of the third person must have gender, ille, illa, illud, he, she, it; because what is spoken of may be absent, and consequently its sex not obvious; or may be not a person, but a thing, and consequently of neither sex. The pronouns of all the three persons must have number; because the speaker, the hearer, or the thing or person spoken of, may be either one or more than one. Pronouns are not numerous in any language, very few being sufficient for all occasions on which they become necessary. The different classes of them are well enough distinguished in the common grammars. 60. OF ATTRIBUTES. These are words which |