Of OXFORDSHIRE. 283 



had purfued the defign of a dumb Cbaracler a confiderable time* 

 at laft he perceived that it would naturally refolve it felf into a 

 Language, having this advantage over any Character, that we 

 may ufe our known Alphabet to exprefs it, whereas in a Character 

 the figures muft be new. At length having digefted his whole con- 

 trivance into a Synopfis, he communicated it to feveral Learned 

 Men, whofe approbation and certificates procured him good en- 

 couragement ; but he met with no Man that took fo much pains 

 to underftand the Novelty, or fo zealous to have it finifhed and 

 come abroad, as the Reverend and Learned Dr. John Wilkjns late 

 Lord Bifhop of Qhefier, then the worthy Warden of Wadham 

 College. 



185. The laft thing he attempted in his Tables, was the re^ 

 ducing the /pedes of Natural Bodies to the rules of Art, the rea- 

 fon of which delay, was becaufe he perceived that they occurred 

 but feldom in common difcourfe, and that there was but little 

 Grammatical difficulty about them, though in number they much 

 excelled all the other /imp le notions, which make the body of a 

 Language : His judgment then being, and as far as I can perceive, 

 ftill remaining unfhaken, notwithstanding what has been done 

 fince, that from a few general words allowed to be radical, the 

 names of the inferior ftecies (\\ou\d be made off by compofition, ad- 

 ding to the general and radical word, one, or fomtimes more fuch 

 vrords taken from the Table of Accidents as might defcribe the in- 

 tended fiecies, and difference it from all others, and fomtimes 

 alfo to allow Periphrafes. 



1 86. And this In/iitution, as he takes it to be grounded upon 

 nature and necefftty, as appears more or lefs in all Languages, fo he 

 thinks it approved by the higheft Examples that ever Art was : For 

 God Himfelf named the firft Man, though a fingle Individual, not 

 by a word of zfirft, but (econd infiitution ; and Adam as a perfeft 

 Philofopberimhat'mghis Maker, named all living Creatures not by 

 words of a first infiitution, antecedently infignificative, but by 

 fuch as by an antecedent infiitution, might be apt to exprefs fom- 

 thing of their nature, for otherwife the common opinion of DU 

 vines that Adam gave names to the Creatures according to their na* 

 tures, would be abfurd. 



187. Which Infiitution he takes alfo to have this further dd 

 vantage, that the name of any fingle /pedes may be known with- 



N n 2 out 



