Chap. XiV. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 269 



blc, at lead for an animal of fuch limited capacity as man is. It is, 

 therefore, only the fpeciefes of things, that we can denote by words. 

 Ho\V' many of thefe are in number has not yet been afcertained : 

 And all that fcience hitherto has been able to do in that matter, is 

 to i-educe them to genufes of the higheft order, and in that way to 

 clafs and number them ; which, as 1 have Ihown*, was a very great 

 work of fcience, the greateft perhaps that ever was performed. But, 

 even as to the fpeciefes, they are fo many, that hitherto they have 

 never been, numbered, nor 1 believe ever v^dll. The grammatical 

 art, however, has reduced them to certain general heads, which it 

 calls parts if fpeech, and has made them eight in number. Thefe, 

 I have obferved, may be called the categories of language; and thev 

 admit of the fame general divifion into fubftance and accident f . 

 The fpeciefes of things compi-ehended under the parts of fpeech,. 

 though they never have been numbered, we are fure, are fo many,, 

 that, if they were to be all denoted by diftind: words, unconne<3:ed 

 with one another, there is no memory that could comprehend them,, 

 fo as to make a ready ufe of them. It was, therefore, of ahfolute 

 neceffity that fome way fhould be contrived, by which, in a lan- 

 guage of art, the words ufed to exprefs lb very many different things, 

 which ia the Latin language amount to no lefs than live millions J, 

 fhould be fo connedfed together, that they may be comprehended 

 ii\ the memory, and readily applied to ufe. This wonderful work is 

 performed by the three great arts of language, Derivation, Compofi- 

 tion, and Flection, by which the words are fo connedled together, 

 • both in found and fenfe, that the knowledge of one naturally leads 

 to the knowledge of another. Of thefe three, fledlion, as I have 

 elfewhere obferved || , is the greateft art ; for without making a 



new 



* Page 76. of this vol. 

 f Page 118. ibid. 

 t Page 119. ibid, 

 11 Pa<je 126. ibid. 



