326 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



glance of the eye, we fee all the languages that- 

 are in ufe in all parts of the known world. 

 Thefe maps are highly curious, and have doubt- 

 lefs co ft the inventors immenfe labour. 



VIII. We have elfewhere remarked, that the 

 books which teach the particular rules of a Ian- 

 guage are called grammars, rudiments, vc. and 

 thofe that contain the words and phrafes, dictio- 

 naries, lexicons, lexical manuals, vocabularies, 

 &c. Philology (hews the manner in which 

 thefe books are to be made, and the precautions 

 that are to beobferved to render them infinitive 

 and agreeable : the method of treating fynony- 

 mous terms - 9 the gradations that are among 

 words feemingly iynonymous ; and many other 

 like matters. It fhews alib the reciprocal in- 

 fluence which the genius and manners of a 

 people have on their language -, and their lan- 

 guage on their general method of thinking-, 

 their manners, urbanity and refinement. 



IX. But as it is irrpoflible to perceive all the 

 force and elegance of the various allufions, me- 

 taphors and comparifons in a language, efpeci- 

 ally in an ancient language, if we are not pro- 

 perly inftructed in their manners, cuiloms, cere- 

 monies, laws, art?, fciences and profcfiions, and 

 other peculiarities of the nation by whom they 

 have been ufccl, and whofe natural idiom they 

 formed, philology, in order to know the true 

 origin, etymology, and fignification of the words, 



terms, 



