179** grammatical disquisitions. ^t^ 



Aaiong these peculiarities, the circumstances that 

 denoted relation, or necefsarj connection, between one 

 iobject and another, would be soon observed, and 

 would afford a hint for forming a general clafs of 

 words, that might be employed for this purpose. Itv 

 a civilized country, as soon as an idea of property- 

 begins to prevail, it will naturally occur to every- 

 one on seeing any unknown object, that it must in 

 general belong to, or be appropriated to the use of 

 some person : and, as we liEve bestowed sych a par- 

 ticular attention to man, as to confer an appropriated 

 name upon each individual, we naturally make use 

 of that proper name to serve as a help for identify- 

 ing those objects that peculiarly belong to him. 

 Thus, for example, I see a house for the first time ; 

 and as 1 know that house must have an owner, or 

 an occupier, I enquire who that owner is, and upon 

 being answered, yohn or William, I lay hold of that 

 circumstance to disting-uifh it from others, and ever 

 afterwards call it 'John's or William'' s house. 



In like manner, as every whole must consist of 

 parts, by referring that particular member of any 

 body we wifli to identify to the whole, of which it 

 forms a constituent part, we can readily distinguifh 

 it from other members of the same kind, as a horse's 

 hoof, dijheep'sj'oot, a bullock'' s head, and so on : or 

 still more particularly, yames^s hand, George'' s head, 

 &c. 



The above examples furnifh us with one instance, 

 out of many thousands that might be produced, of 

 the Ihifts that mankind have been obliged to adopt, 

 in forming languages, by stretching general prin- 



VOL. X, R R f 



