rence in difcourfe. In English, moft of our LECT. grammarians hold the perfonal pronouns to have two cafes, befides the nominative; a genitive, and an accufative,—I, mine, me;—thon, thine, thee;—be, bis, bim;—who, whose, whom.

In the first stage of Speech, it is probable that the places of thofe pronouns were fupplied, by pointing to the object when present, and naming it when abfent. For one can hardly think that pronouns were of early invention; as they are words of fuch a particular and artificial nature. I, thou, he, it, it is to be observed, are not names peculiar to any fingle object, but fo very general, that they may be applied to all perfons, or objects, whatever, in certain circumftances. It is the most general term that can poffibly be conceived, as it may ftand for any one thing in the universe, of which we fpeak. At the fame time, thefe pronouns have this quality, that, in the circumstances in which they are applied, they never denote more than one precife individual; which they ascertain, and specify, much in the fame manner as is done by the article. So that pronouns are, at once, the most general, and the most particular words in Language. They are commonly the most irregular and troublesome words to the learner, in the Grammar of all tongues; as being the words most in common use, and subjected thereby to the greatest varieties.

LECT.
VIII.

ADJECTIVES, or terms of quality, fuch as, great, little, black, white, yours, ours, are the plaineft and fimpleft of all that clafs of words which are termed attributive. They are found in all Languages; and, in all Languages, must have been very early invented; as objects could not be distinguished from one another, nor any intercourfe be carried on concerning them, till once names were given to their different qualities.

I HAVE nothing to obferve in relation to them, except that fingularity which attends them in the Greek and Latin, of having the fame form given them with fubftantive nouns; being declined, like them, by cafes, and fubjected to the like diftinctions of number and gender. Hence it has happened, that grammarians have made them to belong to the fame part of Speech, and divided the noun into fubftantive and adjective; an arrangement, founded more on attention to the external form of words, than to their nature and force. For adjectives, or terms of quality, have not, by their nature, the leaft refemblance to fubftantive nouns, as they never exprefs any thing which can poffibly fubfift by itself; which is the very effence of the fubftantive noun. They are, indeed, more a-kin to verbs, which, like them, exprefs the attribute of fome fubftance.

VI I.

IT may, at first view, appear fomewhat odd LE C T. and fantastic, that adjectives fhould, in these antient Languages, have affumed fo much the form of fubftantives; fince neither number, nor gender, nor cafes, nor relations, have any thing to do, in a proper fense, with mere qualities, such as, good or great, foft or hard. And yet bonus, and magnus, and tener, have their fingular and plural, their mafculine and feminine, their genitives and datives, like any of the names of fubftances, or perfons. But this can be accounted for, from the genius of those Tongues, They avoided, as much as poffible, confidering qualities feparately, or in the abftract. They made them a part, or appendage, of the substance which they served to dif tinguish; they made the adjective depend on its fubftantive, and resemble it in termination, in number, and gender, in order that the two might coalefce the more intimately, and be joined in the form of expreffion, as they were in the nature of things. The liberty of transpofition, too, which thofe Languages indulged, required fuch a method as this to be followed. For, allowing the related words of a sentence to be placed at a distance from each other, it required the relation of adjectives to their proper fubftantives to be pointed out, by fuch fimilar circumftances of form and termination, as, according to the grammatical style, should fhow their concordance. When I fay, in English,

Q 4

VIII.

LECT. English, the " Beautiful wife of a brave man, the juxtapofition of the words prevents all ambiguity. But when I fay, in Latin, "For"mofa fortis viri uxor," it is only the agreement, in gender, number, and cafe, of the adjective "formofa," which is the first word of the sentence, with the fubftantive "uxor," which is the laft word, that declares the meaning.

LECTURE IX.

STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE.

ENGLISH

TONGUE.

OF

IX.

F the whole clafs of words that are called LEC T attributive, indeed, of all the parts of Speech, the most complex, by far, is the verb. It is chiefly in this part of Speech, that the fubtile and profound metaphyfic of Language appears; and, therefore, in examining the nature and different variations of the verb, there might be room for ample difcuffion. But as I am fenfible that fuch grammatical difcuffions, when they are pursued far, become intricate and obfcure, I fhall avoid dwelling any longer on this subject, than seems abfolutely neceffary.

THE verb is fo far of the fame nature with the adjective, that it expreffes, like it, an attribute, or property, of fome perfon or thing. But it does more than this. For, in all verbs, in every Language, there are no less than three things implied at once; the attribute of some substantive,

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