Chap. T. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. ny 



Tartary to Germany and the northern kingdoms of Sweden and Den- 

 mark*. And there is another thing proved by language, and which 

 is ftill more interefting to the pliilofopher ; and that is the pro- 

 grefs of the human mind in forming ideas, the materials of all our 

 knowledge. This we learn by the ftudy of the barbarous languages, 

 which to many may appear a very ufelefs and trifling ftudy. But 

 by it we learn what can no otherwife be learned, the progrefs of 

 the human mind in the improvement of thofe two great faculties 

 the fource of all our knowledge ; I mean, abJlraBion and generalifa- 

 tion. How defedlive men were at fitft in the exercife of thefe fa- 

 culties, and how by degrees they improved them, is to be learned 

 only from the ftudy of barbarous languages. 



There is only one thing wanting to make this part of the hiftory 

 of man compleat ; and that is, to difcover in what country language 

 was firft invented and formed into an art. This is a fubje(fl of very 

 curious inquiry, and which will be treated in the next chapter. 



CHAP. 



f Vol. I. of Origin of Language, p. 594. 



