Chap.IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 331 



But a more extraordinary compofition in the Shanfcrit, than any 

 1 have hitherto mentioned, and which is the fame in the Greek, 

 and is lb remarkable a peculiarity in both languages, that I think 

 it is impoflible it could exift, except in languages that were ori- 

 ginally the fame. The compofition I mean is of words with the 

 letter <?, implying a negation of the quality expreffed by the word, 

 for wiiich rearon it is called, by the Greek grammariai^s, the a pri- 

 vative, fuch as the words, a,xpo(.Toi, a/iAa/S;jj, and hundreds of otliers. 

 Now, I am told, not only by Mr Wilkins, but by others who have 

 applied to the ftudy of the Shanfcrit, particularly Mr Haftiugs, who 

 is not only a good Greek fcholar, but learned in the Shanfcrit. ihat 

 this compofition is as common in that langu ge as it is in Greek. 



As to Derivation, Mr Wilkins has afforded me ac particular ex- 

 amples of this branch of the art of the Shanfcrit language, but as it 

 is a more fimple art than either compofition or fiedtioa, 1 tnink it 

 muft abound in it as much as 1 fhall fhow it does in a more 

 difficult part of the art, i mean fiedion. Mr Haihed, in the 

 paflage I have quoted from him, fays, that it abounds in derivation 

 as well as in compofition and fledlion; and if it were not fo, it could 

 not deferve the very high eulogium which Pons, the Jefuit, has be- 

 ftowed upon it, which is, that it is fo regularly formed from a few 

 roots, that a man, who has made himfelf mafter of thofe roots, and 

 of the rules of its compofition, derivation, and fledion, mav, from 

 the roots, form himfelf a language, which will be underllood by 

 thofe who are learned in the Shanfcrit, though it may differ from 

 the language in common ufe*\ 



I come now to fpeak of the third and grcateft art of language, In 



my opinion, I mean fledlion ; by which, with a fmall variation of 



the word, genders and numbers of nouns are expreffed, alfo cafes 



are formed, by which the various relations, that the noun has to the 



T t 2 other 



* See Vol. 26. of Lettres Edifiantes et Curieufe?. 



