MOODS of VERBS. 233 



to us, or at leaft are fuppofed to be fo, that many people who 

 are accuftomed to the elegant, and often concife and animated, 

 compofitions of hiftorians, orators, and poets, cannot be recon- 

 ciled to that accurate enunciation of propofitions and of argu- 

 ments in proof of them, which is often indifpenfibly neceflary 

 for ftrid reafoning ; or if they can bring themfelves to liften 

 to the propofitions and demonftrations of geometry, when ex- 

 prelTed in this way, they will not fo readily admit that there is 

 the fame occafion for fuch fulnefs and accuracy of expreffion 

 on any other fubjedl, not even in metaphyfics ; hence the 

 vague, inconclufive, and often abfurd reafonings, which have 

 produced both difguft and diftruft of fuch fpeculations. 



Grammatical language, in general, and efpecially the 

 modern languages, afford fuch flow eKpreflions of thought, that 

 often before we have heard or read the half of a fentence, we 

 apprehend the meaning of the whole of it, and, of courfe, the 

 latter part of it is not merely fuperfluous and tedious, but in 

 many cafes quite difgufting. 



If we could exprefs our thoughts by grammatical language 

 as quickly and concifely as we can by natural language, and 

 without lofing any thing of that dillindlnefs and precifion 

 which artificial language gives to the expreffion of them, it 

 would unqueftionably be a great improvement in language, in 

 point of agreeablenefs, animation, and force. I doubt whe- 

 ther it would be equally favourable in fcience. I am difpofed 

 to think that the flownefs, or even tedioufnefs, of the expref- 

 fion of our thoughts on certain fubjecfls of profound reafoning, 

 has its ufe, by giving us time and opportunity, and almoft 

 forcing us, to attend to every particular thing, and its relations 

 to other things, about which we reafon. But even this has its 

 limits ; and mathematical demonftration itfelf, as we find it in 

 the writings of the ancient geometers, is but an abridged chain 

 of fyllogifms. And it is ftill further abridged in many cafes, 

 by thofe who are perfed mafters of it, by omitting many of 

 Vol. II. • G g the 



