56. All that concerns our public happiness, our union and peace, within ourselves; all which tends to develop our resources, improve and perpetuate our institutions; all which may give us wealth, strength, and glory, among nations, depends on the general course of instruction: that instruction, in a great degree, on the goodness of our national language, which is the instrument of all. Our population has increased from 2,500,000 to 5,000,000, and from five millions to ten, in 44 years. We are still proceeding at the same rapid rate of increase, which is beyond all parallel in ancient or modern days. Our course of moral and physical progress is greater than that of our numbers. This impulse, extending to hundreds of millions of people, must take its direction from the general literature of our country, connected, to a greater extent than most persons would believe, with the degree of cultivation given to our speech. The principles of language, therefore, necessarily blend themselves with all our prime interests as a nation; and to those who are prepared to enter on this investigation, it is a source of unceasing admiration, that while the great leading rules of speech are few and simple, the minor variations are endless. The relative changes of words, connected with the workings of thought, adapt themselves to every imaginable form of utterance, and run into each other by such nice gradations, as are hardly obvious to the keenest observations of philosophy. Instead of considering the study of language as the mere task of the schools, there is reason to believe that a better understanding of its elements will lead to great improvements in mental and physical researches. The structure of speech, as exhibited in different conditions of society, is an exhaustless

store of practical facts and principles, which go far beyond all abstract reasoning, in teaching to man the great lesson, "Know thou thyself."

ESSAY, &c.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY EXPLANATIONS.

57. One of the greatest difficulties in language, is the loose manner in which terms are frequently used, even by writers of distinguished reputation and influence. The word perfect refers only to the "highest conceivable excellence, that which is neither defective nor redundant, absolutely faultless ;" yet we find Dr. Johnson, contrary to his own definition, Dr. Blair, and most other British authors, of the highest reputation, habitually comparing this word, which properly admits of no comparison. One thing may be more excellent than an other, because excellence is always a relative term '; but to go beyond perfection, is for the rider to jump over the horse, instead of seating himself in the saddle. More perfect is the same as less; because it is not most perfect, and consequently not perfect at all,

58. The same observations will apply to insur mountable, unattainable, supreme, extreme, immense, insuperable, and a multitude of others, which con❤ tain the total affirmation or negation in the simple meaning of the term,

Ex. "The whole library [that of Christina Queen of Sweden] is contained in an immense gallery, 214 feet long, and 48 feet broad."-Dr. Brewster.

It requires but little reflection to perceive the absurdity of speaking of an immeasurable or boundless room of two hundred and fourteen feet long:

"Ignorance of the signification of words, which is want of understanding, disposeth men to take on trust, not only the truth they know not, but the errors, and which is more, the nonsense of them they trust; for neither error nor sense can, without a perfect understanding of words, be detected."-Hobbs. Leviathan, Chap. II.

59. Language consists of words, employed by common consent, as signs of thought.

The primitive meaning of the word language, is the utterance of the human voice as directed by the tongue. The name of this chief instrument of speech has been adopted among most nations to signify language itself.

60. In a philosophic exposition of speech, the same words must be attended to in three distinct points of view.

1. Their literal, original, and strict meaning. 2. The general acceptation which they acquire by fashion and use.

3. Their different import by different relations to other words, or their manner of signification.

Thus the verb do signifies to act or practise; but in the familiar question, "How do you do?" the uniform understanding is, what is the state of your health; though the literal meaning is, how do you act, behave or conduct yourself.

The same idea is conveyed in the French question, "Comment vous portez vous?" how do you carry yourself.. In Spanish, "Como lo va ?" how do you go; answering to the Saxon expression still prevalent in many places, how fare you? from the old verb faran, to travel or go.

The short familiar phrase in Latin was, agis?" what are you doing.

Quid

When a man is under the temporary delirium of a fever, we say in English, "he is out of his head." To express the same idea, the French say, "he is out of himself;" or otherwise, "Il a perdu sa tete;" "He has lost his head ;" not meaning that the man's head is cut off, but that his senses are disordered.

So if it is said that a person is in a situation of particular difficulty, and at a loss for expedients, the common English phrase is, he does not know which way to turn himself. The Frenchman says, from habit and with great seriousness, "Il ne sait sur quel pied de danser;" he does not know which foot to dance on. There is also, in most languages, a great number of figurative expressions, which grow into characteristic idioms, and give a turn to the general current of thought; as the expressions of joy, "To have a light heart," "To beat the ground with a light foot ;" but the consideration of this subject will be reserved to an other part of this work.

61. An other principle of language, of considerable importance to the philosophic investigator, is the transitive meaning of words. This gradual change takes place in numerous instances, and from various causes, most commonly a change of the circumstances or opinions which led to the first application.