Figure apart, in our Language, the names of things without fex are also without gender And this, not because our Reasoning or Understanding differs from theirs who gave them gender; (which must be the case, if the * «Sexus enim non nifi in Animali, aut in iis quæ Animalis naturam "imitantur, ut Arbores. Sed ab ufu hoc factum eft; qui nunc mafculinum "fexum, nunc fœmininum attribuiffet.Proprium autem generum effe "pati mutationem, fatis patet ex genere incerto; ut etiam Armentas dixerit "Ennius, quæ nos Armenta." J. C. Scaliger de caufis, cap. lxxix. "Nominum quoque genera mutantur adeo, ut privatim libros fuper hac "re veteres confecerint. Alterum argumentum eft ex iis quæ Dubia sive "Incerta vocant. Sic enim dictum eft, Hic vel Hac dies. Tertium tefti"monium eft in quibufdam: nam Plautus collum mafculino dixit. Item Jubar, Palumbem, atque alia, diverfis quam nos generibus effe a prifcis pronunciata." Id. cap. ciii. "Amour qui eft mafculin au fingulier, eft quelquefois feminin au pluriel; "de folles amours. On dit au mafculin Un Comté, Un Duché; & au feminin "Une Comté pairie, Une Duché pairie. On dit encore De bonnes gens, & "Des gens malheureux. Par où vous voyez que le fubftantif Gens eft « feminin, lorsqu'il eft précédé d' un adjectif; & qu'il est masculin, lorsqu' "il en eft fuivi." L'Abbé de Condillac, P. 2. chap. iv. The ingenious author of Notes on the Grammatica Sinica of M. Fourmont-fays," According to the Grammaire Raifonnée, les genres ont eté "inventés pour les terminaifons. But the Meff. du Port Royal have dif"covered a different origin; they tell us that-Arbor eft feminine, parceque comme une bonne mere elle porte du fruit.-Miratur non fua. How could "Frenchmen forget that in their own la meilleure des langues poffibles, Fruit"trees are mafculine, and their fruits feminine? Mr. Harris has adopted "this idea he might as well have left it to its legitimate parents." P. 47. ર Mind Mind or Reafon was concerned in it *.) But because with us the relation of words to each other is denoted by the place or by Prepositions; which denotation in their language ufually made a part of the words themselves, and was fhewn by cafes or terminations. This contrivance of theirs, allowing them a more varied construction, made the terminating genders of Adjectives useful, in order to avoid mistake and mifapplication. At *« Sane in fexu feu genere phyfico omnes nationes convenire debebunt quoniam natura eft eadem, nec ad placitum fcriptorum mutatur. "Poetæ & Pictores in coloribus non femper conveniunt. Ventos Romani "non folum finxerunt effe viros, fed & Deos: at Hebræi contra eos ut Nymphas pinxerunt. Arbores Latini fpecie fœmineâ pinxerunt; virili Hifpani, &c. Regiones urbefque Deas effe voluit Gentilium Latinorum Theologia: at Germani omnia hæc ad neutrum rejecerunt. Et quidem " in Genere, feu fexûs diftinctione grammaticâ, magna eft inter authores "differentia; non folum in diverfis linguis, fed etiam in eadem. In La« tina, ne ad alias, recurram, aliter Oratores, & aliter Poetæ aliter ve"teres, & aliter juniores fentiunt, &c. Iberes in Afia florere dicuntur, " & linguam habere elegantem, & tamen nullam generum varietatem " agnofcunt." Caramuel, lxii. ΕΠΕΑ ΠΤΕΡΟΕΝΤΑ, &c. CHAP. V. OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION. B. HOWEVER connected with the Noun, and generally treated of at the fame time, I suppose you forbear to mention the Articles at prefent, as not allowing them to be a separate Part of Speech; at least not a necessay Part; because, as Wilkins tells us, "the Latin is without them ** Notwithstanding which, when you confider with him that "they are so convenient for the greater diftinctness of "fpeech; and that upon this account, the Hebrew, Greek, "Sclavonic, and most other languages have them;" perhaps you will not think it improper to follow the example of many other Grammarians: who, though like you, they deny them to be any part of speech, have yet treated of them separately from those parts which they enumerate. And this you may very confiftently do, even though you *Effay, Part 3. Chap. 3. fhould should confider them, as the Abbé Girard calls them, merely the avant-coureurs to announce the approach or entrance of a Noun * * « J'abandonne l'art de copier des mots dits & répétés mille fois avant "moi; puifqu'ils n'expliquent pas les chofes effentielles que j'ai deffein de "faire entendre à mes lecteurs. Une étude attentive faite d'apres l'usage "m'inftruit bien mieux. Elle m'apprend que l'Article eft un mot établi pour annoncer & particularifer fimplement la chofe fans la nommer: c'est “ à dire, qu'il est une expression indefinie, quoique pofitive, dont la juste "valeur n'eft que de faire naitre l'idée d'une efpece fubfiftente qu'on "diftingue de la totalité des etres, pour être enfuite nommée. Cette de"finition en expofe clairement la nature & le fervice propre, au quel on « le voit constamment attaché dans quelque circonftance que ce foit. Elle "m'en donne une idée nette & déterminée: me le fait reconnoitre par "tout: & m'empeche de le confondre avec tout autre mot d'efpece diffé"rente. Je fens parfaitement que lorfque je veux parler d'un objet, qui "se préfente à mes yeux ou à mon imagination, le génie de ma langue ne "m'en fournit pas toujours la denomination précise dans le premier instant "de l'exécution de la parole: que le plus fouvent il m'offre d'abord un "autre mot, comme un commencement de fujet proposé & de diftinction "des autres objets; enforte que ce mot est un vrai préparatoire à la denomination, par lequel elle eft annoncée, avant que de se présenter ille "même: Et voilà l'Article tel que je l'ai defini. Si cet Avant-coureur "diminue la vivacité du langage, il y met in récompenfe une certaine po"liteffe & une délicateffe qui naiffent de cette idée préparatoire & indéfinie "d'un objet qu'on va nommer: car par ce moyen l'efprit étant rendu at"tentif avant que d'être instruit, il a le plaifir d'aller au devant de la dénomination, de la defirer, & de l'attendre avant que de la poffeder. Plaifir " qui a ici, comme ailleurs, un mérite flateur, propre à piquer le gout.Qu'on me paffe cette metaphore; puifqu'elle a de la jufteffe, & fait con"noitre d'une maniere fenfible une chofe tres-metaphyfique." I 2 Difc. iv. H. Of all the accounts which have been given of the Article, I must own I think that of the very ingenious Abbé Girard to be the most fantastic and abfurd. The fate of this very neceffary word has been moft fingularly hard and unfortunate. For though without it, or fome equivalent invention *, men could not communicate their thoughts at all; yet (like many of the most useful things in this world) from its unaffected fimplicity and want of brilliancy, it has been ungratefully neglected and degraded. It has been confidered, after Scaliger, as "otiofum loquaciffimæ gentis Inftrumentum;" or, at best, as a mere vaunt-courier to announce the coming of his master: whilst the brutish inarticulate Interjection, which has nothing to do with speech, and is only the miserable refuge of the speechless, has been permitted, because beautiful and gaudy, to ufurp a place amongst words, and to exclude the Article from its well-earned dignity. But though the Article is denied by many Grammarians to be a Part of Speech; it is yet, as you fay, treated of by many, feparately from those parts *For fome equivalent invention, fee the Perfian and other Eastern languages; which fupply the place of our Article by a termination to those Nouns which they would indefinitely particularize. This circumstance of fact (if there were not other reafons) fufficiently explodes Girard's notion of Avant-coureurs. 9 which |