MOODS of VERBS. 245 



have been conveyed by common words in fucceffion and ar- 

 rangement, by reafon of the great length of time required to 

 ntter or to read them ; in the courfe of which time, many of 

 the particular thoughts compofing the mafs would be gone, be- 

 fore others were fuggefted or produced, with which they ought 

 to .be combined, to enable us to perceive their various re- 

 lations. 



The analogy between the diagrams and formulae of mathe- 

 maticians, and the moods of verbs, and other inflections of 

 words in common difcourfe, which I endeavour here to point 

 out, is not fo diftant as may at firft fight appear. They agree 

 in this, that all of them exprefs, infinitely better than any fuc- 

 ceflion or arrangement of words can do, combinations of 

 thoughts, which are almoft or perfectly co-exiflent, and which, 

 by means of them, are apprehended more juftly, more qiiickly, 

 and more forcibly, than otherwife they could be. 



And let it be remembered, that the objects and relations 

 which occupy the minds of geometers, though more abflrufe, 

 and requiring a greater voluntary effort of thought, than 

 thofe which engage the attention of ordinary men, are not 

 more numerous or complicated, but in general much lefs fo ; 

 and that they admit more eafily, and with lefs injury, of be- 

 ing broken down, and given fucceffively, at leaft with a view 

 to demonftration, in which no great quicknefs is required. 

 Hence, in a great meafure, the clearnefs and force of mathe- 

 matical reafoning. 



The mafTes of co-exiftent thoughts which we often meet 

 with in common difcourfe, or in elegant compofition in full 

 periods, are of incredible extent, as appears on our endeavour- 

 ing to analyfe them, and exprefs in detail the various parts of 

 the complicated meaning which we apprehend. 



The firft feven lines of the Iliad, containing about forty- 

 words, and the firft fixteen lines of Paradife Loft, containing 

 about one hundred and twenty words, denote refpeclively a 



mafs 



