gta grammatical disquisitions.' Aug. ap. 



Cillaf appropriated names, as Casar, Pompey, j^leKi 

 ofider. In bestowing which names men would some- 

 times Ife influenced by chance, or accidental ciroum-^ 

 stances ; though we know that these names were fre- 

 quently compounded of distinct words, which had 

 originally a Reference to the powers or appeatance of 

 -the object to which they were applied, though they 

 were afterwards used without any reference to these 

 appearances ; as red-head^ bare-foot, h aim'' s -father, &C. 



But as the diversity of individual objects is so 

 great, that no man can know them all by name ; or, 

 if he "himself did know them, could he make others 

 know at first sight, the name by which each particu- 

 lar object had been distinguiflied, among different 

 clafses of men, it must frequently happen, that ob- 

 jects will occur, with whose appropriated name a 

 man is entirely unacquainted. When such a case oc- 

 curred, what would he do ? He would naturally first 

 refer it to thi\t general clafs of objects to which it 

 obviously belonged, and then would have recourse 

 to description to supply the want of an appropriated 

 name. Let us suppose, for example, that a man had 

 seen an ox for the first time, he would naturally say 

 to another, ./ saw a large animal with four legs, and 

 two horns, and so on, till he had finiflied the descrip- 

 tion in the best way he could. 



But as this mode of communicating ideas is both 

 tedious and troublesome, he would have recourse to 

 some contrivance to avoid these difficulties, and fhort- 

 en his nomenclature ; and with this view would lay 

 hold of such particulars as accident, or the circum- 

 stances in which he found himself placed, first sug- 

 gested to him. 



