330 Philosophij oj Language, [Chap. XVI. 



North Britain ; by fatlicr Simon, M. Voltaire, 

 and the abbe Conclillac, of France ; and by J. G. 

 Herder *, and others, of Germany. The Latter 

 doctrine was adopted, and maintained^ during the 

 period under consideration, by J. P. Sussmilch, Dr. 

 Bcattie, Dr. Bhiir, and by many other writers, Avho 

 have treated either formally or indirectly on the 

 subject. 



The true nature and philosophy of language, or 

 the ^ymc\]A^?> o^ Uiikersal Gi^ammar, seem to have 

 eluded the inquiries of the most sagacious for many 

 centuries. A multitude of writers of the first cha- 

 racter, from Plato down to Leibnitz, treated large- 

 ly and ably on the subject ; but they did little 

 more than copy the mistakes of each other^ or 

 present a succession of delusive systems, which 

 would not bear the test of more enlightened exa- 

 mination. Though this may appear strange to a 

 careless or superficial inquirer, yet when tbe ex- 

 treme difficulty of the subject is duly appreciated, 

 it will no longer be a matter of surprise that so 

 many great men should, in their investigations, 

 have gone so wide of the mark. 



After the many preceding failures to examine 

 with success the philosophy of language, Mr. 

 Locke undertook the task, in his great work on the 



language is the same with the Sanscrit, or sacred language of 

 India, of which the Greek, is a dialect. See his Origin and Pro* 

 grcss of Language, 



* Herder accounts for the origin of language on mechanical 

 principles, or by combining the organical structure of the body 

 with the faculties of the mind which inhabit it, and the circum- 

 stances in which the being is placed^ in whom t)iis organisation 

 and these faculties are united. 



