in-hand in Africa, in America, and among the South-Sea islanders, the majority of whom entertain the grossest superstition and idolatries.

XV. Grammar.

379. The power of communicating ideas by speech is peculiar to man; but it is a power on which depends his improvement in all the arts; because the gradation and accumulation of improvments depend on co-operation and continuation.

Neither could exist, if the power were not attained of describing improvements to the living, and of transmitting them to posterity.

380. The language of savage nations is, however, very limited: they are able to call a few hundred things by their names; to express some qualities; and name a few modes of action; but they express more by gesture than by sound: few of them can count above ten; and when desired to express a higher number, they shew the hair of their heads.

381. The most ancient languages consisted of two or three hundred monosylables, expressing general ideas :-as air, sea, tree, man, God, house, good, bad, &c.: and all other words, by a systematic combination, were formed out of these such were the Welsh, Chinese, and some other languages.

382. The first sounds used by savages, may be supposed to have been cries of pleasure and pain; as Oh! Ah! and other such words, called INTER

JECTIONS.

They probably next named visible objects; as

river, tree, grass, &c.; thereby introducing a new class of words, called NOUNS.

They would then derive from nouns, a class of words to express corresponding actions; as walk, talk, eat, drink, &c. called VERBS.

.383. The next class of words describe and may be supposed to have been the qualities of nouns and verbs; as tall, swift, short, fast, &c. called ad-NOUNS and ad-VERBS.

Words, to describe the position of nouns in regard to each other; as to, from, above, below, &c., were also among those necessary to a language, and these were called' pre-POSITIONS.

384. The seventh class was a mere refinement of speech, and consisted of words used in place of as he, she, it, they, &c., called pro

nouns ;

NOUNS.

The eighth class was intended to give precision to the noun; as a man, or the man, and called

ARTICLES.

And the ninth class consisted solely of words intended to join others together in a discourse; as and, because, but, yet, &c.; and are called CONJUNC-tions.

385. Such were the origin and progress of speech; and such, without variation, is the general composition of language. The English language, and all others, contain nine kinds of words, or parts of speech named as above; and the science of grammar merely supplies general rules for their arrangement and government.

386. The classification of all words into nine kinds, enables grammarians to simplify the rules

N

which direct the construction of language. Instead of a rule for every word, a few rules only are necessary to regulate forty thousand words.

Obs. For the details of grammar, I must refer the student to my own Practical grammar; or to any other modern grammar which is not too long and complex. 387. All names of things, are called nouns; all qualities of thing are called ad-nouns, or adjectives.

All actions are expressed by verbs.

All words, which modify actions or qualities, are called ad-verbs.

All words, which describe the position of persons and things, are called pre-positions..

All words, which are used instead of nouns, or for nouns, are called pro-nouns.

All words, which are used to join sentences or parts of sentences, are called conjunctions.

The words a or an, and the, are called articles. The exclamatory words, which express earnestness or surprise, are called interjections.

388. The first written signs of words were probably hieroglyphics, or characters, which represented the object named by the character; and, of course, there were nearly as many characters as ideas. The characters now used for the signs of the Zodiac and the Planets are spe-, cimens of this kind of character; and so is a circle or snake, when used to signify eternity.

389. The invention of letters, by combining which all sounds could be represented, is ascribed to some wise man in the reign of Cadmus, king of Thebes. This simple contrivance facilitated

the propagation and preservation of knowledge, by enabling us to express a million of words, if we desire it, by the various combination of only twenty-four or five characters.

Obs. 1.-In the GREEK LANGUAGE there are twentyfour letters; of which seven are vowels, and seventeen consonants:-

2.-The following is the ancient HEBREW ALPHABET of twenty-two letters, of which five are vowels, and the rest are consonants:

390. The English language consists of about 40,000 words; and is derived from the Celtic, Gothic, and Latin; successively incorporated by the Welsh, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans; and by the terms used in the sciences, de