on the Etymology of the word Sublimis. 361 



tin prepositions are treated of with any thing like philosophical 

 accuracy ; and hence the vague and uncertain ideas that are ge- 

 nerally entertained of their origin, nature and relations. The 

 classical literature of the day holds a very different course. It 

 contents itself with amassing authorities, investigating different" 

 readings, quoting parallel passages, and retailing opinions, without 

 once venturing from the beaten track, to take a view of the prin- 

 ciples of language. The theory of language is no despicable 

 study ; for, if well and wisely conducted, it shews the progress 

 of the human mind from a rude state, when it was chiefly con- 

 versant with external objects, and ignorant in a great measure of 

 those associations which spring from the view of the living world, 

 and the comparison of its ideas, till it reach, through the me- 

 dium of relations, more and more refined and abstract in their 

 nature, the highest point of intellectual improvement. From the 

 failure of men of the deepest knowledge, and the greatest powers 

 in the science of philology, I consider it still in its infancy, and 

 likely to remain so, unless, with a thorough knowledge of the 

 primitive languages of Europe and Asia, there be combined more 

 of the study of nature, a better acquaintance with severe induc- 

 tive reasoning, and the philosophy of the human mind, than has 

 hitherto appeared in the speculations of the learned. 



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