144 Notices respecting New Books. 
above those of brutes, merely like the sun above the stars, or 
like gold above other metals.’ 
‘¢ Among the various topics started by Bacon for the consi- 
.deration of future logicians, he did not overlook (what may be 
justly regarded, in a practical view, as the most interesting of 
all logical problems) the question concerning the mutual influ- 
ence of thought and of language on each other. ‘ Men believe, 
says he, ‘ that their reason governs their words ; but it often 
happens that words have power enough to re-act upon reason.” 
This aphorism may be considered as the text of by far the most 
valuable part of Locke’s Essay,—¢hat which relates to the 
imperfections and abuse of words ; but it was not till. within the 
last twenty years that its depth and importance were perceived 
m all their extent. I need scarcely say, that I allude to the 
excellent Memoirs of M. Prevost and of M. Degerando, “On 
Signs considered in their Connexion with the Intellectual Ope- 
rations.’ The anticipations formed by Bacon, of that branch of 
modern logic which relates to wnzversal grammar, do no less 
honour to his sagacity. ‘Grammar,’ he observes, ‘ is of two 
kinds, the one literary, the other philosophical. The former has 
for its object to trace the analogies running through the structure 
of a particular tongue, so as to facilitate its acquisition to a 
foreigner, or to enable him to speak it with correctness and 
purity. The latter directs the attention, not to the analogies 
which words bear to words, but to the analogies which words 
bear to things ;’ or, as he afterwards explains himself more 
clearly, ‘ to langua ge consider ed as the sensible portraiture or 
image of the mental: processes,’ In further illustration of these 
hints, he takes notice of the lights which the different genius of 
different languages refiects on the characters and habits of these 
by whom they were respectively spoken. ‘Thus,’ says he, ° it 
is easy to perceive that the Greeks were addicted to the culture 
of the arts, the Romans engrossed with the conduct of affairs ; 
inasmuch as the technical ‘distinctions introduced in the pro- 
gress of refinement require the aid of compounded words; while 
the real business of life stands in no need of so artificial a phraseo- 
logy.’ Ideas of this sort have, in the course of a very few 
years, already become common, and almost tritical; but how 
different was the case two centuries ago! ! 
“‘ With these sound and enlarged views concerning the philo- 
sophy of the mind, it will not appear surprising to those who 
have attended to the slow and irregular advances of human rea- 
son, that Baeon should occasionally blend incidental remarks, 
savouring of the habits of thinking prevalent in his time. A 
curious example of this occurs in the same chapter whieh con- 
tains his excellent definition or description of universal grammar. 
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