372 APPENDIX.— On GREEK ANALOGl'. 



every Greek word may be traced to a verb as its immediate pri- 

 mitive, and all vei'bs ultimately found to emanate from one or 

 other of tliefe duads, by the regular addition or infertion of the 

 confonants. 



One obvious defeat in this fyftem is, that it leaves unexplain- 

 ed altogether the mode in which the various confonants are ufed 

 for modifying the general idea denoted by the duads. Hence, 

 were we even to admit the hypothefis as true, by far the greater 

 part of the mechanifm of language would flill remain to be in- 

 veftigated. 



Another efTential defedl feems to be, that this fyftem fuppo- 

 fes, contrary to all probability, that the abftraA idea of motion 

 unmodified was the root of all language, confequently of all the 

 conceptions of the intelledl ; and that it was not till this idea was 

 formed, that the various kinds and modes of it came to be 

 known and named. The progrefs of nature feems to be the re- 

 verfe : individual adls are firft obferved and named, and from 

 thefe individual ads all general notions come to be formed. 



The fyftem is farther erroneous in this, that it fuppofes thefe 

 five duads to be fignificant and radical words ; whereas it is evi- 

 dent, that the a in each can be nothing but the termination of 

 the verb ; and thefe terminations of the verb, nothing elfe than 

 the remains of a pronoun, coalefced with the verb with which it 

 had been formerly connedled. 



In fo far then, I apprehend, we fhall find this fyftem of ana- 

 logy defedlive and erroneous ; yet, at the fame time, it condudls 

 us a certain length upon the right road, and is therefore by no 

 means undeferving of attention. 



The natural theory upon which I am inclined to think that a 

 juft fyftem of analogy, not for the Greek language alone, but for 

 every primitive language whatever, might be formed, is the fol- 

 lowing : Language having been formed and employed for the 

 communication of our feelings, whether of pleafure or pain, ob- 



jeifts 



