Chap.V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^S5 



not only to philofophy, but to common fenfe and obfervation, that 

 to argue againft it would be time very idly fpent. The author has 

 profefled himfelf a great admirer of the Greek learning || ; but he 

 appears to have carried the ftudy of that learning no farther (which 

 is the cafe of very many Greek fcholars) than the underftanding of 

 the language, and the reading many of the books in it. But he has 

 not carried it to what I hold to be the perfection of the Greek 

 learning, that is, their philofophy. From it he might have learned, 

 that man is by nature a creature only capable of intelledl, aad con- 

 fequently only capable of arts and fciences ; and that the hlflory of 

 man is an account of his progreflion from a ftate of mere capacity, 

 to a ftate of energy and aduality. And the example of this author 

 convinces me more and more, that no man without antient philofo- 

 phy, whatever his natural talents or application may be, (in neither 

 of which, I think, M. Gebeiin is deficient), can underftand the 

 principles of any art or fcience, not even of language, nor be fo 

 much a philofopher, as to underftand the philofophy, or even the 

 hiftory of his own fpecies. 



This language of M. Gebeiin, which may be called a language of 

 inftindl, like the cries of the brute animals, by which they commu- 

 nicate with one another their appetites and defires, and which are 

 perfectly underftood among themfelves, is what our author calls the 

 primitive original language. When I firft began to read his work, 

 I underftood his fyftem to be, that this had been the original lan- 

 guage of every nation ; and that the languages now fpoken were 

 that language, but with thofe changes and variations, which length 

 of time muft introduce into e^rery language ; and, indeed, I think, 

 this is the natural confequence of his fyftem. But, upon a farther 

 perufal of his work, I find, that he agrees with the common opini- 

 on, that one language is derived from another. And, accordingly, 



Yy 2 he 



II Vol. 9. In the beginning. 



