Chap. XVI.] Thllosophy of Language. 33 1 



Munian Understanding *. But while lie threw much 

 light on the doctrines of niind, and treated more 

 successtully than any preceding writer of the com- 

 position and use of terms, he did little to advance 

 the knowledge of universal grammar. liis suc- 

 cessor, Dr. Hartley f, assuming different ground, 

 attempted also to form an analysis of language, 

 and to present a philosophical view of the iiuhject. 

 But, like his predecessors, his iahours served only 

 to show more clearly than ever the importance, 

 the profundity, and the difficul:y of the inquiry. 



Dr. Hartley was followed jy Mr. James Har- 

 ris J, a learned English gentleman, who, in his 

 Hermes, professed to treat this subject in a formal 

 and systematic manner §. He acknowledges him- 

 self to be indebted for some of the leading princi- 

 ples of his system to ApoUoniis, a learned gram- 

 marian of Alexandria; but h^ is, perhaps, still 

 more indebted to professor Peiizonius, a celebrat* 

 ed philologist of Leyden, who early in the cen- 

 tury, in his notes on Sanctii Minerva, delivered 

 nearly the same doctrines ; so rearly, indeed, that 

 good judges have denied to Mr. Harris the honour 

 of having made any important mprovement upon 

 them. 



The system of grammar tauglt in Hermes is ibe 



* lEssay on Human Understanding , vol. i, book ill. 



•^ Obserxations on Man, vol. i, chap, iii.sect. i. 



t Jajnes Harris was born at Salisbury L i/Op, and educated at 

 the univerity of Oxford. He died in 1,80. His /Fo/A.y have 

 been lately collected in 2 vols, 'Ito, and ajood account of his life 

 prefixed, by his son, tlie present lord Malnesbury. 



§ See Hermes, or a phiksophkal Inquiu concemivg Vnivcrsal 

 grammar. J 751. 



