and Algif, &c.-For Als, in our old English is a contraction of Al, and es or as: and this Al (which in comparisons used to be very properly employed before the first es or as, but was not employed before the fecond) we now, in modern English, fupprefs: As we have alfo done in numberless other inftances; where All (though not improper) is not neceffary. Thus, "She glides away under the foamy feas "As fwift as Darts or feather'd arrows fly." That is, "She glides away (with) THAT fwiftnefs, (with) WHICH feather'd "arrows fly." After which he proceeds to his examples of the proper and improper use of these connectives :—without having the most diftant notion of the meaning of the words whofe employment he undertakes to fettle. The confequence was unavoidable: that, (having no reasonable rule to go by, and no apparent fignification to direct him) he was compelled to trust to his own fanciful taste (as in the beft it is), and the uncertain authority of others and has confequently approved and condemned without truth or reafon." Pour"quoi (fays Girard) apres tant de fiecles & tant d'ouvrages, les gens de "Lettres ont-ils encore des idées fi informes & des expreffions fi confufes "fur ce qu'ils font profeffion d'etudier & de traiter? Ou s'ils ne veulent pas prendre la peine d'approfondir la matiere, comment ofent-ils en " donner des leçons au public? C'eft ce que je ne conçois pas." When When in old English it is written, "Sche "Glidis away under the fomy Seis "ALS swift as Ganze or fedderit arrow flcis." Douglas. Booke 10. Pag. 323. Then it means, "With ALL THAT swiftness with WHICH, &c." After what I have faid, you will fee plainly why fo many of the conjunctions may be used almost indifferently (or with a very little turn of expreffion) for each other. And without my entering into the particular minutiæ in the use of each, you will eafily account for the flight differences in the turn of expreffion, arifing from different customary abbreviations of conftruction. I will only give you one instance, and leave it with you for your entertainment: from which you will draw a variety of arguments and conclufions. "And foft he fighed, LEST men might him hear. OUTCEPT OUTCEPT he fighed foft, men might him hear. PUT CASE he figh'd NOT foft, men might him hear. B. According to your account then, Lord Monboddo is extremely unfortunate in the particular care he has taken to make an exception from the general rule he lays down, of the Verbs being the Parent word of all language, and to caution the candid reader from imputing to him an opinion that the conjunctions were intended by him to be included in his rule, or have any connexion whatever with Verbs. H. In "This fo copious derivation from the verb in Greek, naturally leads "one to fufpect that it is the Parent word of the whole language: and " indeed I believe that to be the fact: for I do not know that it can be "certainly fhewn that there is any word that is undoubtedly a primitive, which is not a verb; I mean a verb in the ftricter fenfe and common "acceptation of the word. By this the candid reader will not understand "that I mean to say that prepofitions, conjunctions, and fuch like words, "which are rather the Pegs and Nails that fasten the several parts of the language together than the language itself, are derived from verbs or are "derivatives of any kind." Vol. II. Part 2. B. 1. Ch. 15. Court H. In my opinion he is not lefs unfortunate in his rule than in his exception. They are both equally unfounded: and yet as well founded, as almost every other position which he has laid down in his two firft volumes. The whole of which is perfectly worthy of that profound' politician and philofopher, who esteems that to be the most perfect form, and as he calls it—" the last stage of civil society,” where government leaves nothing to the free-will of individuals; but interferes with the domeftic private lives of the citizens, Court de Gebelin is as pofitive in the contrary opinion," Il a fallu ne"ceffairement," (fays he) " que tous les autres mots vinffent des noms. "Il n'eft aucun mot, de quelqu' efpece que ce foit, & dans quelque langue que ce foit, qui ne defcende d'un nom."-Hift. de la Parole, page 180. *«But the private lives of the fubjects under thofe governments are " left as much to the free will of each individual, and as little fubjected to "rule, as in the American Governments above mentioned: and every man "in such a state may with impunity educate his children in the worit "manner poffible; and may abufe his own perfon and fortune as much as " he pleases; provided he does no injury to his neighbours, nor attempts any thing against the state. The last ftage of civil fociety, in which the "progreffion ends, is that most perfect form of polity which, to all the advantages of the Governments last mentioned, joins the care of the "education of the youth, and of the private lives of the citizens; neither "of which is left to the will and pleasure of each individual; but both are "regulated by PUBLIC WISDOM."Vol. I. page 243. and and the education of their children! Such would in truth be the last stage of civil fociety, in the fenfe of the lady in the comedy; whofe lover having offered-" to give "her the last proof of love and marry her.”—She aptly replied, "The last indeed; for there's an end of loving." B. But what say you to the bitter irony with which Mr. Harris treats the moderns in the concluding note to his doctrine of Conjunctions? Where he says," It is fome"what surprising that the politest and most elegant of the "Attic writers, and Plato above all the reft, fhould have "their works filled with Particles of all kinds and with 66 Conjunctions in particular; while in the modern polite "works, as well of ourselves as of our neighbours, scarce "such a word as a Particle or Conjunction is to be found. "Is it that where there is connection in the meaning, "there must be words had to connect; but that where "the connection is little or none, fuch connectives are of "little ufe? That houfes of cards without cement may "well answer their end; but not those houses where one "would chufe to dwell? Is this the caufe? Or have we "attained an elegance to the antients unknown? "Venimus ad fummam fortunæ, &c.” |