GRAMMAR. 



principles on which its rules are founded. 

 Scientific grammar discusses the grounds 

 of the calassification of words, and inves- 

 tigates the reasons of those procedures 

 which the art of grammar lays down for 

 our observance. 



4. Grammar, as an art, refers only to 

 particular languages : because it would 

 be impossible to lay down any system of 

 rules which would apply to two lan- 

 guages. We may point out in what re- 

 spects the grammars of two languages 

 agree ; but we cannot form a common 

 grammar for both. To a certain extent, 

 the principles of scientific grammar are 

 general, and some of them may be said to 

 be universal. The laws of the human 

 mind are the same in all ages, and in all 

 nations; and of those causes which have 

 called forth its energies, many have oper- 

 ated universally. VVhatever have been 

 the variety of terms, and of the modifica- 

 tion and arrangement of them, the grand 

 objects of men, in the formation and ex- 

 tension of language, have been the same, 



' to communicate their sensations, their 

 judgments, their reasonings; to express 

 the objects of their thoughts, and the 

 changes and connections observed among 

 them, and to do this with dispatch. 

 This has produced great uniformity in 

 the general principles of language. But 

 the connection between words and 

 thoughts is arbitrary, as well as the mode 

 of connecting words themselves. Hence, 

 with much uniformity, we meet with 

 much variety : and hence, universal, or 

 even general grammar must be confined 

 within very narrow limits, till the pheno- 

 mena of a variety of languages have been 

 examined, and their correspondence with 

 each other, as well as their diversities, as- 

 certained. For some of those more ge- 

 neral principles, which may be regarded 

 as the foundation of language in general, 

 we refer our readers to the articles LAN- 

 GUAGE, and the Origin of Alphabetical 

 WRITING; we shall here content our- 

 selves with making the philosophy of 

 our own language our principal object, 

 though we may occasionally be led to 

 state the more general principles of 

 grammar, and derive our illustrations 

 from other languages. Such a mode of 

 procedure may contribute to render the 

 practical use of our own language more 

 clear and certain. 



Of the Arrangement of Words. 



5. The first object of scientific gram- 

 mar is, to form an arrangement of the 



sorts of words composing a language. In 

 languages which admit of various changes 

 in the form of words to denote changes of 

 meaning, the arrangement, in a great de- 

 gree, is pointed out for the grammarian ; 

 and a technical classification will, in such 

 cases, have a decided superiority over one 

 founded purely upon scientific principles. 

 In languages like our own, we are less 

 shackled by the contrivances of art ; yet 

 our arrangements ought to have in view 

 the advantage of practice. 



6. The true principle of classification 

 seems to be, not essential differences in 

 the origin or signification of words, but 

 the mode in which they are employed. 'It 

 should, however, be steadily kept in view, 

 that all distinctions among the sorts of 

 words have gradually arisen out of the 

 circumstances in which language has been 

 formed, and proceededtowards maturity ; 

 and that such distinctions are by no means 

 to be extended beyond the present em- 

 ployment of words. It is necessary, for 

 convenience and dispatch, that we ar- 

 range ; but arrangement must not super- 

 sede further examination. The fact is, 

 that originally there could have been but 

 one sort of words, the names of the ob- 

 jects of our sensations and ideas. From 

 these all others must have sprung; but, 

 without words expressing affirmation, lan- 

 guage must have moved very slowly, and 

 often have been very ambiguous; and 

 therefore we may reasonably suppose, 

 that the ever active principle of associa- 

 tion would soon transform nonns into 

 verbs, by making them in certain situa- 

 tions expressive of affirmation. From, 

 these two classes all the rest have sprung, 

 and though it is desirable, and even neces- 

 sary, for th,e grammarian to arrange, it 

 should ever be carefully borne in mind, 

 that his arrangements respect the present 

 contrivances of language ; and that he, 

 who would look into the causes of these 

 contrivances, must retrace the steps 

 which have been trodden, and see what 

 were the procedures of those periods, 

 when language was merely the child of 

 necessity, not the organ of long-establish- 

 ed and intricate associations. The philo- 

 sophy of language is one branch of the 

 philosophy of mind, and neither will be 

 fully understood till both are. 



7. The objects of sense and intellect 

 are, in reality, nothing more than proper- 

 ties, or collections of properties. The 

 mind, however, resorts to a support for 

 those properties; something by which 

 they are connected, in which they ex- 

 ist ; and this we call substance. As far, 

 however, as this word has any meaning, 



