44 GENERATION. SECT. XXXIX. 12. 4, 



tion or theory of language. The names of the things them- 

 felves are termed by grammarians Nouns, and their modes of 

 exiftence are termed Verbs. The nouns are divided into fub- 

 ftantives, which denote the principal things fpoken of; and in- 

 to adjectives, which denote fome circumftances, or lefs kinds 

 of things, belonging to the former. The verbs are divided into 

 three kinds, fuch as denote the exiftence of things (imply, as, to 

 be ; or their exiftence in an ative (late, as, to eat ; or their ex- 

 iftence in a paflive (late, as, to be eaten. Whence it appears, 

 that all languages confift only of nouns and verbs, with their 

 abbreviations for the greater expedition of communicating our 

 thoughts 5 as explained in the ingenious work of Mr. Home 

 Tooke, who has unfolded by a fmgle fiafti of light the whole 

 theory of language, which had fo long lain buried beneath the 

 learned lumber of the fchools. Diverfions of Purley. Johnfon. 

 London. 



4. A third divifion of caufes has been into proximate and re- 

 mote ; thefe have been much fpoken of by the writers on med- 

 ical fubjets, but without fufficient precision. If to proximate 

 and remote caufes we add proximate and remote effedts, we 

 {hall include four links of the perpetual chain of caufation ; 

 which will be more convenient for the difcuflion of many phi- 

 loibphical fubjects. 



Thus if a particle of chyle be applied to the mouth of a lac- 

 teal veffel, it may be termed the remote cauie of the motions of 

 the fibres, which compofe the mouth of that lacleal veflel ; the 

 fenforial power is the proximate caufe ; the contraction of the 

 fibres of the mouth of the veffel is the proximate effect j and 

 their embracing the particle of chyle is the remote effect ; and 

 thefe four links of caufation constitute abforption. 



Thus when we attend to the rifing fun, firft the yellow rays 

 of light ftimulate the fenforial power refiding in the extremities 

 of the optic nerve, this is the remote caufe. 2- The fenforial 

 power is excited into a ftate of activity) this is the proximate 

 caufe. 3. The fibrous extremities of the optic nerve are con- 

 tracted, this is the proximate effect. 4. A pleafurable or pain- 

 ful fenfation is produced in coniequence of the contraction of 

 thefe fibres of the opnc nerve, this is the remote effect ; and 

 thefe four links of the chain of caufation conftitute the fenfi- 

 tive idea, or what is commonly termed the ienfation of the ri- 

 fing fun. 



5. Other caufes have been announced by medical writers un- 

 der the names of caufa procatarctica, and caufa proegumma, 

 and caufa fine qua non. All which are links more or lefs dif- 

 tant of the chain of remote caufes. 



To 



