394 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



grfon colour is an object which has a definite connection witli 

 that congeries of other quaUties to which we attach the name or 

 description of" rhis cloth." 



From sentences expressing the simpler combinations of 

 ideas we ascend to the ibrmation of others of a more compli- 

 cated kind Of this we have an instance in describing the lo- 

 cal situation of any object. We still only use nouns and verbs 

 for expressing a certain order of ideas. We mention one or 

 more objects to which the chief object of our interest bears some 

 local relation. It makes no difference in the general nature of 

 the act of language, whether these others are previously known, 

 or are now first brought into view for the sake of specifying 

 the relations sustained by that which we intend to describe. 

 The series is still more complicated, when we give an account 

 of a change of place which any object has undergone. We 

 now describe a series of ideas composed of two or more sim- 

 pler series. We assign to the object a particular situation at one 

 moment, and describe its situation as different at a succeeding 

 moment. This is implied in all our ideas of motion, on which 

 the greater part of Active Verbs are founded, — simple as they 

 appear, in consequence of the instantaneous resulting senti- 

 ments which habit has led us to attach to them. The verbs 

 " to go,"— '^ to nm," — " to strike,"—" to kill," — derive their 

 difference of meaning from varieties of arrangement which 

 the same original^ideas are intended to assume. 



These doctrines concerning the Noun and the Verb, and the 

 universality of the character of Assertion in the composition of 

 sentences, cannot, however, be maintained, unless it can be 

 shewn that all the different kinds of sentences are actually re- 

 solvable into assertions, and are originally possessed of that 

 character. Its ajiplication to such sentences as I have now al- 

 luded to is suthciently obvious. It might also be shewn to be 



applicable 



