332 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III, 



other words in the fentence, are fignified : And in verbs, the time 

 of the adlion with all its variety of prefent, paft, and future, and 

 compounds of thefe ; alfo perfons and numbers, and likewife the 

 difpofition of the mind of the fpeaker, with refpe£t to the adion, 

 affirming, wiftiing, or commanding it, are exprefled. This won- 

 derful art, Mr Halhed tells us, abounds in the Shanfcrit ; and, as 

 it is a more perfect language than the Greek, I imagine it excels 

 the Greek in this greateft art of language. The fame Mr Halhed 

 tells us, that. the Bengalefe language, which I hold to be no more 

 than a corrupt dialed of the Shanfcrit, has a clafs of verbs that are 

 conjugated in the fame way, as the verbs in y.i in Greek are. And 

 Mr Wilkins has given me four perfons of the prefent tenfe of the 

 fubilantive verb in the pure Shanfcrit, which is as follows: Afmee^ I 

 am ; afcee^ tbon art ; ajlcc^ he is ; fantee, they are : The three firft 

 of which are the Greek words £ ft,;, e,j, sffrr, and the laft is the. funt 

 of the Latins. And as the Shanfcrit refembles the Greek and La- 

 tin fo much in the fledion of their verbs, we cannot, I think, doubt 

 of its refembling thofe languages likewife in the fledion of their 

 nouns, and the other declinable parts of fpeech. 



Thus, I think, Mr Wilkins has done v>'hat no man before him 

 has done ; having proved by fads, from the comparifon of the two 

 lan"-uap^es, that the Greek and Shanfcrit are dialeds of the fame lan- 

 '•'■uage, the antient language of Egypt, as certainly, I think, as it is 

 proved that the Englifh, Swediih, and Norwegian, are dialeds of 

 the Gothic; and vv'hich language of Egypt is thus proved to have 

 been carried to India, as it is certain that the Indians never were in 

 Kgypt. And as feveral of the antient authors doubted of the Egyp- 

 tians ever having been in India, and the learned Strabo pofitively 

 denies it, I think the learned vvrorld has gn at obligations to Mr Wil- 

 kins for having eflablifhed fo curious a fad, not only in the hif- 

 tory of language, but in the hiilory of man. 



CHAP. 



