tiusque scribendi genus adeo contempsit, ut Senecam, tum maxime placentem, commissiones meras componere, et ARENAM SINE CALCE, diceret."—" Caligulæ hoc judicium est, inquit Lipsius in judicio de Seneca; nempe illius qui cogitavit etiam de Homeri carminibus abolendis, itemque Virgilii et Titi Livii scriptis ex omnibus bibliothecis amovendis. Respondeo igitur meum Senecam non vulgo nec plebi scripsisse, nec omni viro docto, sed illi qui attente eum legeret. Et addo, ubi lector mente Senecam sequitur, sensum adsequi: nec inter sententias, suo se prementes et consolidantes pondere, conjunctionem majorem requiri."-CARAMUEL, cxlii.

And I hope these authorities (for I will offer no argument to a writer of his cast) will satisfy the "true taste and judgement in writing" of Lord Monboddo; who with equal affectation and vanity has followed Mr. Harris in this particular: and who, though incapable of writing a sentence of common English, (defuerunt enim illi et usus pro duce et ratio pro suasore,) sincerely deplores the decrease of learning in England;1 whilst he really imagines that there is something captivating in his own style, and has gratefully informed us to whose assistance we owe the obligation.

CHAPTER IX.

OF PREPOSITIONS.

B.-WELL, Sir, what you have hitherto said of the Conjunctions will deserve to be well considered. But we have not yet entirely done with them: for, you know, the Prepositions were originally, and for a long time, classed with the Conjunctions: and when first separated from them, were only distinguished by the name of Prepositive Conjunctions.2

1 See Mr. Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides, p. 473.

2 The philosophers of Hungary, Turkey, and Georgia at least, were in no danger of falling into this absurdity; for Dr. Jault, in his preface to (what is very improperly, though commonly, called) Menage's Dictionary, tells us-"Par le fréquent commerce que j'ai eu avec eux [les Hongrois] pendant plusieurs années, ayant tâché de pénétrer à fonds ce que ce pouvoit être que cet idiôme si différent de tous les autres d'Europe, je les ai convaincus qu'ils étoient Scythes d'origine, ou du moins

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H.-Very true, Sir. And these Prepositive Conjunctions, once separated from the others, soon gave birth to another subdivision; and Grammarians were not ashamed to have a class of Postpositive Prepositives." Dantur etiam Postpositiones (says Caramuel); quæ Præpositiones postpositivæ solent dici, nulla vocabulorum repugnantia: vocantur enim Præpositiones, quia sensu saltem præponuntur; et Postpositiva, quia vocaliter postponi debent."

B.-But as Mr. Harris still ranks them with Connectives, this, I think, will be the proper place for their investigation. And as the title of Prepositive or Preposition "only expresses their place and not their character; their Definition, he says, will distinguish them from the former Connectives." He therefore proceeds to give a compleat definition of them, viz.

-“A Preposition is a part of speech, devoid itself of signification; but so formed as to unite two words that are significant, and that refuse to coalesce or unite of themselves."Now I am curious to know, whether you will agree with Mr. Harris in his definition of this part of Speech; or whether you are determined to differ from him on every point.

H.-Till he agrees with himself, I think you should not disapprove of my differing from him; because for this at least I have his own respectable authority. Having defined a word to be a "Sound significant;" he now defines a Preposition to be a word "devoid of signification." And a few pages after, he says, "Prepositions commonly transfuse something of their own meaning into the word with which they are compounded." Now, if I agree with him that words are sounds significant; how can I agree that there are sorts of words devoid of signification? And if I could suppose that Prepositions are devoid

que leur langue étoit une des branches de la Scythique; puisqu'à l'égard de l'inflexion elle avoit rapport à celle des Turcs, qui constamment passoient pour Scythes, étant originaire du Turquestan, et de la Transoxiane; et qu'outre cela les PREPOSITIONS de ces deux langues, aussi bien que de la Georgienne, se mettoient toujours après leur régime, contre l'ordre de la nature et la signification de leur nom."

Look at the English, i. e., The language we are talking of: The language we deal IN: The object we look To: The persons we work FOR: The explanation we depend UPON ; &c.

1 Buonmattei has still a further subdivision; and has made a separate part of speech of the Segnacasi.

of signification; how could I afterwards allow that they transfuse something of their own meaning?

B. This is the same objection repeated, which you made before to his definition of the first sort of Connectives. But is it not otherwise a compleat definition?

H.-Mr. Harris no doubt intended it as such: for, in a note on this passage, he endeavours to justify his doctrine by a citation from Apollonius; which he calls "rather a descriptive sketch than a compleat definition." But what he gives us in the place of it as compleat, is neither definition nor even description. It contains a Negation and an Accident; and nothing more. It tells us what the Preposition is not; and the purpose for which he supposes it to be employed. It might serve as well for a definition of the East India Company as of a Preposition: for of that we may truly say—“It is not itself any part of the Government, but so formed as to unite those who would not have coalesced of themselves."-Poor Scaliger (who well knew what a definition should be) from his own melancholy experience exclaimed-"Nihil infelicius grammatico definitore!" Mr. Harris's logical ignorance most happily deprived him of a sense of his misfortunes. And so little, good man, did he dream of the danger of his situation,

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"Je n'entends pas trop bien le Grec, dit le Géant.

'Ni moi non plus, dit la Mite philosophique.

"Pourquoi donc, reprit le Sirien, citez-vous un certain Aristote en Gree?

"C'est, repliqua le Savant, qu'il faut bien citer ce qu'on ne comprend point du tout, dans la langue qu'on entend le moins."- Voltaire, Micromegas.

2 Let the reader who has any sense of justice, or who feels any anxiety for the welfare of his country, look back and re-consider the corrupt use which one Coalition would have made of this company in the year 1783, and the corrupt use which another Coalition has made of it since. Let him then recall to his mind the parallel history of the Company of St. George, at the close of the flourishing days of the Republic of Genoa; and, in spite of all outward appearances, he will easily be able to foretell the speedy fate of this pilfered and annihilated body. Without any external shock, the sure cause of its rapid destruction is in its present despotic and corrupt constitution: to the formation of which (and to no supposed delinquency nor personal enmity) that much injured man, Mr. Hastings, was made the victim by all the corrupt parties in the kingdom.

that whilst all others were acknowledging their successless though indefatigable labours, and lamenting their insuperable difficulties, he prefaces his doctrine of Connectives with this singularly confident introduction:-"What remains of our work is a matter of less difficulty; it being the same here as in some historical picture: when the principal figures are once formed, it is an easy labour to design the rest."1

B. However contradictory and irregular all this may appear to you, Mr. Harris has advanced nothing more than what the most approved Greek and Latin Grammarians have delivered down to him, and what modern Grammarians and Philosophers have adopted.2

Such is the language, and such are the definitions of him who, in this very chapter of the Prepositions, has modestly given us the following note:-" And here I cannot but observe, that he who pretends to discuss the sentiments of any one of these philosophers, or even to cite and translate him (except in trite and obvious sentences) without accurately knowing the Greek tongue in general; the nice differences of many words apparently synonymous; the peculiar style of the author whom he presumes to handle; the new coined words, and new significations given to old words used by such author and his sect; the whole philosophy of such sect, together with the connection and dependencies of its several parts, whether logical, ethical, or physical;-He, I say, that, without this previous preparation, attempts what I have said, will shoot in the dark; will be liable to perpetual blunders; will explain and praise and censure merely by chance: and though he may possibly to fools appear as a wise man, will certainly among the wise ever pass for a fool. Such a man's intellect comprehends antient philosophy, as his eye comprehends a distant prospect. He may see, perhaps, enough to know mountains from plains, and seas from woods; but for an accurate discernment of particulars and their character, this, without further helps, it is impossible to attain."

2 "Præpositio seu adnomen, per se non significat, nisi addatur nominibus."-Campanella.

"Multas et varias hujus partis orationis definitiones invenio. Et præ cæteris arridet hæc,-Præpositio est vocula: modum quendam nominis adsignificans."-Caramuel.

"Ut omittam Particulas minores, cujusmodi sunt Præpositiones, Conjunctiones, Interjectiones, quæ nullam habent cum nominibus affinitatem."―J. C. Scaliger, de L. L. cap. 192.

Even Hoogeveen, who clearly saw- "Particulas in sua Infantia fuisse vel verba vel nomina, vel ex nominibus formata adverbia;" yet gives the following account and Definition of them :

"Primam, ut reliquarum, ita Græcæ quoque linguæ originem fuisse simplicissimam, ipsa natura ac ratio docent; primosque ovoμaderas nomina, quibus res, et verba, quibus actiones exprimerent, non vero

H.-Yes. Yes. I know the errors are antient enough, to have been long ago worn out and discarded. But I do not think that any excuse for repeating them. For a much less degree of understanding is necessary to detect the erroneous principles of others, than to guard against those which may be started for the first time by our own imagination. In these matters it shows less weakness of judgment, because it is more easy to deceive ourselves than to be deceived by

others.

B.-You will do well, Sir, to be particularly mindful of what you said last; and to place your strongest guard there, where it may be most wanted: for you seem sufficiently determined not to be deceived by others. And with this caution, I shall be glad to hear your account of the Preposition. Perhaps I shall save time, at least I shall sooner satisfy myself, by asking you a few questions.-Pray, how many Prepositions are there?

H.-Taking the Philosophy of language as it now stands, your question is a very proper one. And yet you know, that authors have never hitherto been agreed concerning their number. The antient Greek Grammarians admitted only eighteen (six mono

Particulas instituisse, probabile est. Certe, cum ex nominibus et verbis integra constet oratio, quorum hæc actiones et affectiones, illa personas agentes et patientes indicant, jure quæritur, an primava lingua habuerit particulas. Non utique necessariam, rem exprimendi, vim habere videntur, sed adscititiam quandam, et sententias per nomina et verba expressas variandi, stabiliendi, infirmandi, negandi, copulandi, disjungendi, imminuendi, affirmandi, limitandi, multisque modis afficiendi: Ipsæ vero, quatenus particulæ, per se solæ spectatæ, nihil significant.—

"Natura, inquam, ipsa docet, Particulis antiquiora esse nomina et verba, quia, observato rerum ordine, necesse est, res et actiones prius fuisse natas et expressas, quam Particulas, quæ has vel conjungunt, vel disjungunt priora sunt jungenda jungentibus, firmanda firmantibus, limitanda limitantibus, et sic deinceps. Neque mea hæc, neque nova est de particularum minus antiqua origine opinio: suffragantem habeo Plutarchum ad illam quæstionem, quæ inter Platonicas postrema est'Cur Plato dixerit orationem ex nominibus et verbis misceri.' Ubi ait-Probabile esse, homines ab initio orationem distinguentium Particularum eguisse.'

"Dicamus ergo, Particulam esse voculam, ex nomine vel verbo natam, quæ sententiæ addita, aliquam ipsi passionem affert, et orationi adminiculo est, et officiosa ministra. Ministram voco, quia, orationi non inserta, sed per se posita et solitaria, nihil significat."