240 grammatical disquisitions. Aug, ii. 



cur to the human mind, which cannot be denied, it 

 would seem that nothing could be more simple or 

 easy than the translating from one language into ano- 

 th-^r, because nothing more would be wanted than to 

 subiiitute one word in place of another ; yet, when 

 we come to attempt this in practice, it is found to be 

 an intricate and a difficult talk. It would be an use- 

 ful enterprise to attempt to account for this seeming 

 contradiction. 



The fundamental principles of grammar are doubt- 

 lefs the same in all languages, and admit not of any 

 variation. But in the primary formation of words, 

 in their combinations, and modifications, the pofsible 

 variations are almost infinite. Grammar, therefore, 

 in the abstract, can only be one, and if the ejsential 

 circumstances alone are adverted to, it must be both 

 simple and easy : but in practice it may be infinitely 

 various : and, if casual variations, and unefsential 

 modifications, be not carefully distinguiflied from-ef- 

 sential principles, it will become an intricate study, 

 a complicated chaotic mafs, in which nothing but dark- 

 nefs and confusion appear. 



This has, in fact, been too much the case ; and 

 those who have attempted to explain the principles 

 of grammar, especially in modern times, have usual- 

 ly set vip some one language as a standard of perfec- 

 tion, all the anomalies of which, they have consider- 

 ed as efsential principles, which has introduced a con- 

 fusion into that study that renders our ideas respec- 

 ting it indefinite and obscure. 



It would greatly exceed the bounds of an efsay in 

 a miscellany of this nature to enter fully into this 



