Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 119 



leads to the knowledge of other words. And thefe are the three 

 great arts of language, known by the names of derivation, cornpo- 

 fttion, and flexion *. Of thefe three arts I reckon fe^ion the great- 

 eft ; for in nouns it exprefles numbers and genders, and by its Cafes 

 the feveral relations which the thing expreffed by the noun has to 

 other things ; and in the verb it not only expreifes numbers, but 

 perfons, times, and, befides thefe, the difpofitions of the human mind 

 ivith rejpe5i to the a^ion of the verb t .• And all this is exprefled 

 by a variation only, and fometimes a very fmall variation of the 

 word. But of all thefe three great arts of language I have faid (o 

 much in the 2d volume of the Origin of Language, and likewife in 

 the 4th (book I. chap. II.) that I need fay nothing of them here 

 except to obferve, that the barbarous languages, as they do not ufe 

 thefe arts, are extremely defedive in fenfe as well as in found j and 

 are obliged to exprefs things, neceflarily conneded together, by 

 founds quite diflFerent ; and not having learned to divide their lan- 

 guage into parts of fpeech, they very often exprefs two or three dif- 

 ferent things, fuch as the adion, the agent, and the fubjed of the 

 adion, by the fame word. All thefe defeds of barbarous languages 

 i have obferved in the firft volume of the Origin of Language. 



Although we may have given names to all the things of which 



we 



* See the nature of thefe explained In vol. II. Origin of Language, p, 12. and faJ- 

 iowing. 

 f The variety of the fleftions of a Greek verb is really wonderful. I have counted 

 1300 words of different fignifications, from one theme of a Greek verb, fuch as rtj-xru 

 including all the teni'es of the three voices, with the variations of thefe tenfes by per- 

 sons and numbers, and' including alio all the participles with their feveral oendcrs, cafes 

 and numbers, but without t.iking in the derivatives or compounds of the verb. Th-s 

 may appear incredible to a man who has not ftudied language as a fcience, nor has not 

 learned to diftinguKh betwixt a language of arr, fuch as the Greek, and the languages 

 of barbarous nations. It is therefore not to be wondered, that Julius Csfar, who was fo 

 ftudiojs of language, fliould even, amid his great occupations, h^ve written a book De 

 Aralcgia, the name the Latins gave to what we czW feclion. — O^ Csefar's ftudy and 

 knowledge of language, fee what I have faid in vol. II. of Origin of Language, p. 224. 

 225. ; and vol, VI. p. 314. 



