VI. ^GRAMMATICAL ESSAY on the NATURE, IMPORT, 

 and EFFECT of CERTAIN CONJUNCTIONS - t particu- 

 larly the Greek AE. By JOHN HUNTER, M. A. F. R. S. ED IN. 

 and Profejjor of Humanity in the Univerjity of ST ANDREWS. 



\Read by Mr D4LZEL, Secretary, June 21. 1784.] 



LEVIA quidem heer, et parvi forte, Jt per fe fpe&entur, momenti. Sed ex dementis con- 

 Jlant, ex principles oriuntur, omnia : Et ex judicii confuetudine in rebus minutis adhibita, 

 pendet fapijfimf etiam in maximis vera atque accurata Scientia. 



SAM. CLARKE Praef. ad HOM. Iliad. 



IT is a maxim in phyfics, that " an effec"l ought not to be 

 " afcribed to the joint operation of many caufes, if fewer 

 " are adequate to the production of it." Fruflra fit per plura, 

 quod fieri poteft per pauciora. This maxim is no lefs juft when 

 applied to language. It is equally unphilofophical in grammar 

 and in phyfics, to multiply without neceffity the principles from 

 which the phenomena are to be explained. 



IN the Englifh, however, and in other languages, certain 

 words are clafTed by the grammarians as different parts of fpeech, 

 according to varieties obferved in the application of them, even 

 when thefe varieties are merely accidental. Thus, in the fentence, 

 " I came after his departure" the word AFTER is clafled with the 

 Prepofitions ; while, in this other, " I came after he departed" it is 

 claffed with the Conjunctions. The word AFTER is, however, the 

 fame in both fentences ; its meaning is the fame, and its ejfeEt 

 precifely the fame. The only circumftance of difcrimination 

 is, that, in the firft example, it is prefixed to a noun fubllantive, 



to bis 



