B.

This is the fame objection repeated, which you made before to his definition of the first fort of Connectives. But is it not otherwise a compleat definition?

H.

Mr. Harris no doubt intended it as fuch: for, in a note on this paffage, he endeavours to juftify his doctrine by a citation from Apollonius *; which he calls "rather a de"fcriptive sketch than a complete_definition." But what

he gives us in the place of it, as compleat, is neither definition nor even description. It contains a Negation and an Accident; and nothing more. It tells us what the Prepofition is not; and the purpose for which he supposes it to be employed. It might ferve as well for a definition of the East India Company, as of a Prepofition: for of that we may truly fay-" It is not itself any part of the

"Je n'entends pas trop bien le Grec, dit le Geant.

"Ni moi non plus, dit la Mite philofophique.

Pourquoi donc, reprit le Sirien, citez-vous un certain Ariftote en << Grec ?

C'eft, repliqua le Savant, qu'il faut bien citer ce qu'on ne comprend "point du tout, dans la langue qu'on entend le moins."

And

"Government, but fo formed as to unite those who would "not have coalefced of themselves *."-Poor Scaliger (who well knew what a definition fhould be) from his own melancholy experience exclaimed-" Nibil infelicius gram"matico definitore !" Mr. Harris's logical ignorance most happily deprived him of a fenfe of his misfortunes. fo little, good man, did he dream of the danger of his fituation; that whilst all others were acknowledging their fuccefsless though indefatigable labours, and lamenting their infuperable difficulties, he prefaces his doctrine of Connectives with this fingularly confident introduction ;— "What remains of our work is a matter of lefs difficulty; "it being the fame here as in fome historical picture

* Let the reader who has any fenfe of justice, or who feels any anxiety for the welfare of his country, look back and re-confider the corrupt ufe which one Coalition would have made of this company in the year 1783, and the corrupt use which another Coalition has made of it fince. Let him then recall to his mind the parallel history of the Company of St. George, at the close of the flourishing days of the Republic of Genoa; and, in fpite of all outward appearances, he will easily be able to foretell the speedy fate of this pilfered and annihilated body. Without any external shock, the fure caufe of its rapid deftruction is in its prefent defpotic and corrupt conAitution to the formation of which (and to no fuppofed delinquency nor perfonal enmity) that much injured man, Mr. Haftings, was made the victim by all the corrupt parties in the kingdom.

❝ when

"when the principal figures are once formed, it is an eafy "labour to design the rest*.”

B.

However contradictory and irregular all this may appear to you, Mr. Harris has advanced nothing more than what the most approved Greek and Latin Grammarians have de

* Such is the language, and fuch are the definitions of him who, in this very chapter of the prepofitions, has modeftly given us the following note, —“ And here I cannot but observe, that he who pretends to discuss the «fentiments of any one of these philofophers, or even to cite and tranflate "him (except in trite and obvious fentences) without accurately knowing "the Greek tongue in general; the nice differences of many words appa"rently fynonymous; the peculiar style of the author whom he prefumes "to handle; the new coined words, and new fignifications given to old "words used by fuch author and his fect; the whole philofophy of fuch "fect, together with the connections and dependencies of its feveral parts, "whether logical, ethical or phyfical;-He, I fay, that without this pre"vious preparation, attempts what I have faid, will fhoot in the dark; "will be liable to perpetual blunders; will explain and praise, and cenfure

merely by chance; and though he may poffibly to fools appear as a wife "man, will certainly among the wife ever pass for a fool. Such a man's "intellect comprehends antient philofophy, as his eye comprehends a

diftant profpect. He may fee, perhaps, enough to know mountains "from plains, and feas from woods; but for an accurate difcernment of particulars and their character, this, without farther helps, it is impoffible " to attain."

livered down to him, and what modern Grammarians and Philofophers have adopted *.

H. Yes.

Præpofitio feu adnomen, per fe non fignificat, nisi addatur nomi-
-Campanella.

"nibus."

"Multas & varias hujus partis orationis definitiones invenio. Et præ "cæteris arridet hæc.-Præpofitio eft vocula: modum quendam nominis adfignificans." -Caramuel.

"Ut omittam Particulas minores, cujufmodi funt Præpofitiones, Conjunctiones, Interjectiones, quæ nullam habent cum nominibus affinitatem." J. C. Scaliger. de L. L. Cap. cxcII.

Even Hoogeveen who clearly faw-" Particulas in fua Infantia fuisse vel verba vel nomina, vel ex nominibus formata adverbia;" yet gives the following account and Definition of them.

Primam, ut reliquarum, ita Græcæ quoque linguæ originem fuiffe fimpliciffimam, ipfa natura ac ratio docent, primosque ovoμaberas nomina, quibus res; et verba, quibus actiones exprimerent, non vero Particulas inftituiffe, probabile eft. Certe, cum ex nominibus et verbis integra conftet oratio, quorum hæc actiones et affectiones, illa perfonas agentes et patientes indicant; Jure quæritur, an primæva lingua habuerit particulas. Non utique neceffariam, rem exprimendi, vim habere videntur, fed adfcititiam quandam, et fententias per nomina et verba expreffas variandi, ftabiliendi, infirmandi, negandi, copulandi, disjungendi, imminuendi, affirmandi, limitandi, multifque modis afficiendi: Ipfæ vero, quatenus particulæ, per fe folæ fpectata, nihil fignificant.

Natura, inquam, ipfa docet, Particulis antiquiora effe nomina et verba, quia, obfervato rerum ordine, neceffe eft, res et actiones prius fuiffe natas

et

H.

Yes. Yes. I know the errors are ancient enough, to

have been long ago worn out and discarded.

think that any excufe for repeating them.

But I do not

For a much

lefs degree of understanding is neceffary to detect the erroneous principles of others, than to guard against those which may be started for the first time by our own imagination. In these matters it fhews lefs weakness of judgment, because it is more eafy, to deceive ourselves, than to be deceived by others.

B.

You will do well, Sir, to be particularly mindful of what you faid laft; and to place your strongest guard there,

et expreffas, quam Particulas, quæ has vel conjungunt, vel disjungunt: priora funt jungenda jungentibus, firmanda firmantibus, limitanda limitantibus, et fic deinceps. Neque mea hæc, neque nova eft de particularum minus antiqua origine opinio: fuffragantem habeo Plutarchum ad illam quæftionem, quæ inter Platonicas poftrema eft.-" Cur Plato dixerit ora❝tionem ex nominibus et verbis misceri". Ubi ait" Probabile effe, "homines ab initio orationem diftinguentium Particularum eguiffe."

"Dicamus ergo, Particulam effe voculam, ex nomine vel verbo natam, quæ fententiæ addita, aliquam ipfi paffionem affert, et orationi adminiculo "eft, et officiofa miniftra. Miniftram voco, quia, orationi non inferta, seď per fe pofita et folitaria, nihil fignificat."

where