their works, have seen the present discovery, they would have confessed that all they had ever written on the human mind should, from beginning to end, be considered over again.

These latter observations remind me, that I should here make known the names of several works for which I am now collecting materials, to the end as I mean to apply, in the execution of them, the knowledge just discovered that all persons desirous of lending assistance towards bringing as near to perfection as possible "the science of languages," may favour me with their advice or communications, on a matter so likely to interest and benefit the public. The works to which I allude are to be "A National Dictionary," showing the meaning which every word carries in itself, as its own definition; "A National Grammar; " and "The Elements of Philosophy and Logic.

As a single perusal of this work must enable many intelligent persons to analyse, in all the languages of which they know the letters, multitudes of words, with correctness and facility, and as such persons will, I have no doubt, amuse themselves sometimes this way, it would, were I favoured with

* These communications may, when made in England, be addressed to Messrs. Longman and Co., London, for the author; and, as he intends to publish similar works in France for the use of the French nation, they may, when made in the latter country, be addressed to the care of the Paris publisher, for Monsieur Charles Joubert, whose encouragement and enlightened opinions have been of great service to the author during the progress of the present discovery.

their productions, be soon in my power, with the trouble of revisal alone, to lay before the public by far the most curious and valuable dictionary ever yet published; but which, without some such assistance, must be the labour of years.

By this means I should be also enabled to contend with the many competitors I am likely to have in the application of the principles of the science of languages to such works as I have in contemplation; for, though there may be many persons of views so confined as will not be able to raise themselves to the height of the present discovery, and who can, consequently, neither understand nor adopt its principles, it is impossible for me to conceive how persons of enlarged minds, and whose belief in it will be sincere, can any longer follow a system by which they must be well aware

for it has been clearly proved in this work—that not so much as one word can, without the grossest contradiction and violation of common sense, be accounted for.

But it is to the respectable members of schools and colleges to all institutions founded for the diffusion of useful knowledge -to self-taught students (for these at least have thoughts of their own) and to the estimable parents who make their children's education the study of their lives-that I look most for the advice I now claim; well aware as I am, that such persons must, of all others, take most interest in the advancement of this discovery.

As to the form of this work, no advice can be justly given. My discoveries, it has been already stated, are set down in the rude but natural order in which they have been made; and as they were put together in the midst of haste and interruption - and the greater part whilst going through the press-it can be easily conceived that unless I were, when at the last page, to begin the whole work over again, its form could not have been improved. But had this been done, it would no longer show, as it does now, the way in which this discovery was made, nor its regular progress throughout; although this mode would have enabled me to have given all its parts in an equally finished and correct state, which it has not been in my power to do, for the reason that, as I advanced, my knowledge increased. Hence any body of the least penetration may, from a single perusal of this work, remark, that he can analyse words much better than I did myself in the beginning, when my knowledge of this art was yet very faint, compared to what it is at present but I have, of course, still many things

to learn.

Of the members of the press I ask no advice, as it were impossible to do so without begging a favour of them, and in this quarter I do not wish for any. If my discovery be real, I shall stand in need of no indulgence, and if it be not, I should have none. To speak indulgently of such a discovery were, for the reason that it so nearly concerns public instruction, the most criminal act of

which a reviewer could perhaps, in the discharge of his duty, be guilty. I say perhaps, because, besides this criminal act, there is still another, fully as bad, and of which certain respectable gentlemen of the press-I mean those who wish nobody to be thought any wiser than they are themselves— might very well be guilty; and this were to endeavour, by affected indifference, or mutilated reviews of it, to keep this discovery as much as possible out of the reach of public notice. But were I to crave any indulgence for this work, it ought to be for its form; and the more so, as in our days the wretched art of book-making is greatly prized and practised, and is brought to so high a state of perfection that some men appear—and these, I am told, are the most popular writers to have discovered the happy means of filling as many volumes as they please with nothing at all.

Hence such persons as are smitten with this wonderful art, must find a work containing the science of all the languages ever spoken, with a great deal of other hidden knowledge besides, a very unsightly production compared to one made up after the fashion of the day, out of nothing; and they may, in their hearts, pity the simple man who could allow himself to be so won with making such a discovery, as never once to think of making a book. Every body, they will remind me, has been delighted with Horne Tooke's wonderful account of the Verb; and yet nobody can understand what he means by it, as he never, notwithstanding

all he says about it in his two large quarto volumes, gives, it is remarked, a definition of this word. I shall be also told, that it does not appear nowadays the fashion to have minds sufficiently enlarged to conceive the plan of a work so grossly contrived as mine is; one of so extensive and varied a range, and which takes in such a multitude of discoveries respecting both the forms and meanings of words and letters. Horne Tooke, they will again remind me, has astonished all philologists by his celebrated account of the word THAT, though he never knew what it means; whereas my account of the same word will attract no notice at all — though I do show what it means - on account of the vast number of other far more important discoveries by which it is surrounded. Had this work gone no farther than the Substantive and the Adjective, this were surely sufficient matter, with numerous quotations, for two large quarto volumes, and more than enough, in our days, to fill a mind of great capacity; but the discovery of the real nature of these two words will also, notwithstanding its importance, be soon lost sight of by nine readers out of ten, in the many other discoveries equally important, by which it is still followed. The same may be said of the contents of almost every page in the whole of this work; each new discovery being, through its importance, calculated to banish the recollection of all that went before. Such a superabundance of matter, will, I am aware, be very prejudicial to this discovery with such minds