Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^si 



compofition obferved in It, you may form a language of your own, 

 which, though different from the common language, will be very 

 well underftood by thofe who know the art by which the language 

 is formed. This account, given by the Jefuit, agrees perfedlly 

 with what Mr Wilkins told me of the formation of the language, 

 which he learned both from the Bramins, who taught him the lan- 

 guage, and from a grammar of it that is in his pofTeffion. I will 

 only add, that a language of fuch art, muft have been the work of 

 philofophers, who know that all fciences begin with analyfis, by 

 which we rife to general principles, and from thefe defcend to 

 particulars. And there is one of the greateft works of fcience, to 

 which, I think, the Shanfcrit language may fitly be compared : The 

 work I mean is, that upon the Categories by Archytas, the Pytha- 

 gorean philofopher, and after him by Ariftotle ; for, in that work, 

 all the ideas of the human mind are reduced to certain general ideas, 

 called Categories, from which all our particular, or lefs general, ideas, 

 are deduced. 



But even the Greek and Latin, though languages not near fo per- 

 fe£t as the Shanfcrit, are wonderful works of art, when we confi- 

 der, that by means of derivation, compofition, and fledtion, they 

 contrive to conne(ft together five millions of words, (the number of 

 words in the Latin language according to Biiliop Wilkins), fo that 

 they may be comprehended in the memory and readily applied to 

 ufe. Of thefe three great arts of language, the greateft, as I have 

 obferved *, is fledion, by which, in nouns, not only genders and 

 numbers are denoted, but the relations of things to one another are 

 exprefled by the cafes : And, by the conjugation of verbs, not only 

 perfons and numbers are expreffed, but time and almoft every circum- 

 ftance of the action ; which makes fuch variations in the fledlion 

 of the verb, and of its participles, that it is computed, a fingle 

 Greek verb produces more than looo words. 



Vol. IV. Y y ' Before 



■ * Page 346. / 



