Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^S^ 



^SyP^ I think it is to be prefumed, that from thence they got like- 

 wife their hinguage. 



And here a curious queftion occurs : By what rule, or whether 

 by any rule, thofe lirft monofyllabical words, which I agree, with 

 M, Gebelin, were the roots of the primitive language, and confe- 

 quently of every language derived from it, were formed ? And M. 

 Gebelin is of opinion, that thofe roots were not names given by 

 chance to things, but that there was a reafon why one fyllable was 

 employed to exprefs a certain thing rather than another ; and the 

 reafon, he fays, was fome refemblance betwixt the found of the 

 word, and the thing expreffed by it. And he is at great pains to 

 fhew, that there is not only in the compofition of letters making 

 fyllables, but in every fingle letter, an expreflion of fome idea, fen- 

 fiuion, fentiment, or feeling, of one kind or another; fo that he 

 makes even of fingle letters a kind of roots. 



As to my opinion in this matter, I fo far agree with M. Gebelin, 

 that I believe man does hardly any thing by mere chance ; and that 

 the maxim of Mr Leibnitz's Philofophy, That there is a reafon for 

 every thing, will apply to the works of man as well as to the works 

 of nature, in fo far thai man does nothing without a reafon, though 

 very often not a good or fufficient reafon, but fiich as moves him 

 to a£t. I likewife agree with him, that there are many words, I be- 

 lieve, in all languages, which exprefs, by their founds, the things fig- 

 nified by them, fuch as the words crap}^ gurgle^ roar, and many 

 other in Englifh. And further, I think that not only corporeal 

 things, perceived by the fenfes, may be fo expreffed, but alfo the 

 ideas and fentiments of the mind, may likewife be denoted by 

 founds which have fome analogy to them. And accordingly we 

 may obferve, that in Engliili, and I believe in all languages, the 

 words denoting the operations of the mind, are metaphors taken 



from 



