322 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



fpoken in that country are dialects more or lefs corrupt *, is the' 

 Shanfcrit, the moft perfedl language that is, or, I believe, ever was, 

 on this earth ; for it is more perfedt than the Greek. This Sir Wil- 

 liam Jones, who is well knowa to be learned in many different lan- 

 guages, and particularly in the Greek, has told us in cne of his pub- 

 lications : But if he had not faid fo, we know fo many particulars 

 concerning the form and ftrudlure of it, as to be convinced that he 

 is in the right. 



Mr Braffey Halhed, in his preface to the tranflation of the Code of 

 Gentoo Languages, has told us feveral things concerning the Shanfcrit, 

 which fliow it to be a language of the greateft art: And particularly it 

 abounds in fledion, which, ss I have more than once cbferved, is the 

 greateft art of language : For it has no lefs than feven declenfions, 

 with fmgular, dual, and plural numbers; and in the other two great 

 arts of language, derivation and compofition, it is alfo, he fays, very 

 abundant. The pronounciation of it, he fays, is as mufical as that 

 of the Greek, having both melody and rhythm ; fo that, when it is 

 fpoken, it appears to be a kind of recitative, very like what the Jews 

 ufc in their fy nagogues f . Their poetr^'-, like the Greek and Latin, 

 is formed by long and fhort fyllables %■. And our author, in his pre- 

 face Ij, has given us fome fpecimens of their moft anlient poetiy, 

 where the quantities are esactiy marked ; and it Is to be obferved, 

 that the words are of great length, and full of vowels, which muft 

 give a very pleafant found to their poetry, and in general to their lan- 

 guage. Their alphabet, lie fays, confifts of 50 letters, and their fhort 

 and- long vowels are marked by ditferent characters, which Ihows 

 the regard they have to the rhythm of their language ; and it is to 

 be wiftied, that the Greeks and Romans had fhown the fame regard 



to 



• The names of places and of perfons, which in all languages muft have been among 

 the firft words, are all, according to my information, Shanfcrit words, 

 t Page 25. t Page 27. Il Page 26. 



