Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 129 



is at prefent fpoken In Europe : For it has four cafes of nouns 

 formed by fledion ; whereas the prefent languages of Europe vary, 

 in that way, only fome cafes of their pronouns. It is even a more 

 perfe£t language than the Latin : For it has one part of fpeech 

 which the Latin wants ; I mean the Article. It has alfo two pafl: 

 tenfes, the aorlft and preterperfedl ; whereas the Latin has but one tenfe 

 for both : And it has a paft participle paQive, which the Latin like- 

 wife wants *. The language of Lapland, of which I have fpokea 

 elfewherefj never could have been the invention of fuch a people 

 as the Laplanders : And, accordingly, we are fure that it came from 

 a very diftant country lying far to the eaft, from whence it came 

 firft to Hungary, and then from Hungary to Lapland. The Green- 

 landers are ftill a more barbarous people than the Laplanders ; and 

 yet they have the ufe of a dual number in nouns, which the Latin 

 has not, and form the tenfes of their verbs by fleQlon, and have 

 one tenfe, which the Latin has not, I mean a fecond future. This 

 I learned as well as other things, which I have mentioned in the 

 courfe of this work, from a grammar of that language, to be found 

 in the King's Library at London. 



As languages, therefore, v>rere not invented in every country, 

 But muft have gone from one country to another, the queftion is, 

 where they were firft invented. And, in xhejirjl place, as language 

 is the moft antient art among men, being the parent art of all other 

 arts jnd of all fcience, it is evident, that the nation, which firft in- 

 vented it, muft have been a very antient nation, and the firft civilif- 

 cd nation of this earth. 



Vol. IV. R 2d6, 



* This account of the Gothic language, I have got from Mr Thorkelin, who is at 

 prefent Profeflbr in the Univerfity of Copenhagen, but is a native of Iceland, where the 

 Gothic language is ftill preferved in the greateft purity.— See further of the Gothic 

 Language, in vol- I. of Origin of Language, p. 552. 



-|- Vol. VL of Origin of Language, p. 138, 



