Chap.55:iV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 265 



and Rhythm. — This common to feveral of the Antient Languages, 

 atid to fomc Modern Languages. — Of the difference betwixt the 

 Mufic of the Chinefc Language and that of the Greek. — The one is 

 Chanting or Singing ; the other a fne Melodious flow, fuitab'c to 

 Language, and quite different from common Mufic. — Language thus 

 fhown to be a mojl beautiful as well as ufeful art, and of the great- 

 efl extent, variety, and, at the fame time, regularity. 



THE analyfis of language into its elemental founds, naturalh/ 

 leads me to fpeak of the invention of language itfelf ; a moi': 

 curious and wonderful art, as well as a mod ufeful one, being the 

 parent of all other arts and of all fciences, and, at the fame time, ot 

 moft difficult invention. Of the difficulty of the invention, I have 

 faid a good deal in the firft chapter of this fecond book ; but, I will 

 add fomething more here, as language is the mofl: important part of 

 the fubjedt of this book, which is the hiftory of the invention of 

 arts and fciences. 



The invention of language is neceffarily connected with another 

 moft important part of the hiftory of man, fo important, that with- 

 out it, he could not have been a man at all, that is, an intellediual 

 creature. What I mean is the Ideas of things, which he forms from 

 the objects of fenfe ; for, as I have more than once obferved in the 

 courfe of this work, our fenfes are the inlets of all our knowledge 

 in this life. Ideas are fo effential to language, that without them 

 there could be no language at all ; for a language, expreffing only 

 individual objedls, could not be called a language. Of ideas, I have 

 treated pretty fully in Chap. VI. and VII. of Book I. of this vo- 

 lume; where I hope I have fatisfied the reader, — Teat there are par- 

 ticular ideas as well as general; nor, indeed, can general ideas with- 

 out particular be conceived to exift ; — That abftradl ideas are diffe- 



VoL. IV. L i - rent 



