!06 D IS 9U IS II' IONS on the 



this we can add, what I believe will pretty generally be found to 

 hold true, that thofc who afFed moft to defpife this branch of 

 ftudy, have feldom any thing better to fubftitute in its place, 

 a fufBcient vindication will, I hope, be afforded, for employ- 

 ing a little literary leifure in the culture even of this apparently 

 unpromifing iield. 



These confiderations may, I trufl, then, plead my apology for 

 taking up the attention of the Society at this time with fome ety- 

 mological hints and conjedures, — not, I own, direded towards 

 the more extenfive trads in which profounder fcholars often wifli 

 to range, but confined within the narrow limits of a particular 

 branch of a particular language, — a language, however, juftly 

 admired for copioufnefs and elegance, and a branch of it which 

 at different times has been thought worthy the attention of cri- 

 tics of no inferior note. 



By the ingenious and elaborate refearches of recent etymolo- 

 gifts, the ftrudlure of language has been made to affume a fim- 

 pler drefs than what grammarians had once thought proper to 

 invert it with. The pnrts offpeech, as they are technically term- 

 ed, have been reduced from their numerous claffes to two ; the 

 conneding particles, ufually termed and fuppofed indeclinable, 

 have been completely excluded from their feparate rank ; and by 

 tracing out the genealogical relations of words, all have been 

 fairly Ihown to belong to one or other of the claffes of Nouns or 

 Verbs *. 



The 



* Even this claflification of words might be ftill farther fimplified, and either 

 the noun or the verb fliewn to be the root of all language. Etymologifts have dif- 

 fered 



