merely on account of its title, reached to many thousands more than, I fear, it would have done, had he called it (what it is merely) a grammatical Essay, or a treatise on Words or on Language. The human Mind, or the human Understanding, appears to be a grand and noble theme; and all men, even the most insufficient, conceive That to be a proper object of their contemplation; whilst inquiries into the nature of Language (through which alone they can obtain any knowledge beyond the beasts) are fallen into such extreme disrepute and contempt, that even those who "neither have the accent of Christian, pagan, or man,” nor can speak so many words together with as much propriety as Balaam's Ass did, do yet imagine Words to be infinitely beneath the concern of their exalted understandings! Let these gentlemen enjoy their laugh. I shall however be very well satisfied if I do not meet with your disapprobation: and I have endeavoured studiously to secure myself from that, by avoiding to offend you with any the smallest compliment from the beginning to the end of this letter. It is not any to declare myself, with the greatest personal affection and esteem, your most obedient and obliged humble servant,

King's-Bench Prison,
April 21, 1778.

JOHN HORNE.

Amichevole, Ital., 665, 669. Askew, 259.