CHAPTER IV.

OF THE NOUN.

H.-Or the first Part of Speech-the Noun-it being the best understood, and therefore the most spoken of by others, I shall need at present to say little more than that it is the simple or complex, the particular or general sign or name of one or more Ideas.

I shall only remind you, that at this stage of our inquiry concerning Language, comes in most properly the consideration of the force of Terms: which is the whole business of Mr. Locke's Essay; to which I refer you. And I imagine that Mr. Locke's intention of confining himself to the consideration of the Mind only, was the reason that he went no further than to the Force of Terms; and did not meddle with their Manner of signification, to which the Mind alone could never lead him.

B.-Do you say nothing of the Declension, Number, Case and Gender of Nouns ?

H.-At present nothing. There is no pains-worthy difficulty nor dispute about them.

B. Surely there is about the Gender. And Mr. Harris particularly has thought it worth his while to treat at large of what others have slightly hinted concerning it: and has supported his reasoning by a long list of poetical authorities. What think you of that part of his book?

H.-That, with the rest of it, he had much better have let it alone. And as for his poetical authorities; the Muses (as I have heard Mrs. Peachum say of her own sex in cases of murder) are bitter bad judges in matters of philosophy.

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“Pythagorici sexum in cunctis agnoscunt, &c. Agens, Mas; Patiens, Fœmina. Quapropter Deus dicunt masculine; Terra, fœminine: et Ignis, masculine; et Aqua, foeminine: quoniam in his Actio, in istis Passio relucebat."-Campanella.

"In rebus inveniuntur duæ proprietates generales, scilicet proprietas Agentis, et proprietas Patientis. Genus est modus significandi nominis sumptus a proprietate activa vel passiva. Genus masculinum est modus significandi rem sub proprietate agentis: Genus fœmininum est modus significandi rem sub proprietate patientis."-Scotus Gram. Spec. cap. 16.

Besides that Reason is an arrant Despot; who, in his own dominions, admits of no authority but his own. And Mr. Harris is particularly unfortunate in the very outset of that"subtle kind of reasoning (as he calls it) which discerns even in things without sex, a distant analogy to that great natural distinction." For his very first instances the SUN and the MOON-destroy the whole subtilty of this kind of reasoning.' For Mr. Harris ought to have known, that in many Asiatic Languages, and in all the northern Languages of this part of the globe which we inhabit, and particularly in our Motherlanguage the Anglo-Saxon (from which sUN and MOON are immediately derived to us), SUN is Feminine, and MOON is Masculine. So feminine is the Sun, ["that fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata,""] that our northern Mythology makes her the Wife of Tuisco.

And if our English Poets, Shakespeare, Milton, &c. have, by a familiar Prosopopeia, made them of different genders; it

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1It can only have been Mr. Harris's authority, and the ill-founded praises lavished on his performance, that could mislead Dr. Priestley, in his thirteenth lecture, hastily and without examination to say"Thus, for example, the SUN having a stronger, and the MOON a weaker influence over the world, and there being but two celestial bodies so remarkable; All nations, I believe, that use genders, have ascribed to the Sun the gender of the Male, and to the Moon that of the Female."

In the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, German, Dutch, Danish and Swedish, SUN is feminine: In modern Russian it is neuter.

2

Apud Saxones, Luna, Mona. Mona autem Germanis superioribus Mon, alias Man; a Mon, alias Man, veterrimo ipsorum rege et Deo patrio, quem Tacitus meminit, et in Luna celebrabat.-Ex hoc Lunam masculino (ut Hebræi) dicunt genere, Der Mon; Dominamque ejus et Amasiam, e cujus aspectu alias languet, alias resipiscit, Die Son; quasi hunc Lunam, hanc Solem. Hinc et idolum Lunæ viri fingebant specie; non, ut Verstegan opinatur, fœminæ."-Spelman's Gloss.

MONA.

"De generibus Nominum (quæ per articulos, adjectiva, participia, et pronomina indicantur) hic nihil tradimus. Obiter tamen observet Lector, ut ut minuta res est, Solem (Sunna vel Sunne) in AngloSaxonica esse fœminini generis, et Lunam (Mona) esse masculini.' G. Hickes.

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Quomodo item Sol est virile, Germanicum Sunn, fœmininum. Dicunt enim Die Sunn, non Der Sunn. Unde et Solem Tuisconis uxorem fuisse fabulantur."-G. J. Vossius.

is only because, from their classical reading, they adopted the southern not the northern mythology; and followed the pattern of their Greek and Roman masters.

Figure apart, in our Language, the names of things without sex are also without gender.1 And this, not because our Reasoning or Understanding differs from theirs who gave them gender; (which must be the case, if the Mind or Reason was concerned in it,) but because with us the relation of words to each other is denoted by the place or by Prepositions; which denotation in their language usually

1 "Sexus enim non nisi in Animali, aut in iis quæ Animalis naturam imitantur, ut arbores. Sed ab usu hoc factum est; qui nunc masculinum sexum, nunc fœmininum attribuisset. -Proprium autem generum esse pati mutationem, satis patet ex genere incerto; ut etiam Armentas dixerit Ennius, quæ nos Armenta.”—J. C. Scaliger de Causis, cap. 79.

'Nominum quoque genera mutantur, adeo ut privatim libros super hac re veteres confecerint. Alterum argumentum est ex iis quæ Dubia sive Incerta vocant. Sic enim dictum est, Hic vel Hæc Dies. Tertium testimonium est in quibusdam: nam Plautus Collum masculino dixit. Item Jubar, Palumbem, atque alia, diversis quam nos generibus esse a priscis pronunciata."-Id. cap. 103.

"Amour qui est masculin au singulier, est quelquefois feminin au pluriel de folles amours. On dit au masculin Un Comté, Un Duché; et au feminin Une Comté pairie, Une Duché pairie. On dit encore De bonnes gens et Des gens malheureux. Par où vous voyez que le substantif Gens est feminin, lorsqu'il est précédé d'un adjectif; et qu'il est masculin, lorsqu'il en est suivi."-L'Abbé de Condillac, part 2. chap. 4.

The ingenious author of Notes on the Grammatica Sinica of M. Fourmont-says, "C According to the Grammaire Raisonnée, les genres ont été inventés pour les terminaisons. But the Mess. du Port Royal have discovered a different origin; they tell us, that-Arbor est feminine, parceque comme une bonne mère elle porte du fruit.-Miratur non sua. How could Frenchmen forget that in their own la meilleure des langues possibles, Fruit-trees are masculine and their fruits feminine? Mr. Harris has adopted this idea he might as well have left it to its legitimate parents."-P. 47.

:

2" Sane in sexu seu genere physico omnes nationes convenire debebunt; quoniam natura est eadem, nec ad placitum scriptorum mutatur. At Poetæ et Pictores in coloribus non semper conveniunt. Ventos Romani non solum finxerunt esse viros, sed et Deos: at Hebræi contra eos ut Nymphas pinxerunt. Arbores Latini specie fœminea pinxerunt; virili Hispani, &c. Regiones urbesque Deas esse voluit Gentilium Latinorum Theologia; at Germani omnia hæc ad neutrum rejecerunt. Et quidem in Genere, seu sexûs distinctione grammatica,

made a part of the words themselves, and was shewn by cases or terminations. This contrivance of theirs, allowing them a more varied construction, made the terminating genders of Adjectives useful, in order to avoid mistake and misapplication.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE ARTICLE AND INTERJECTION.

B. HOWEVER connected with the Noun, and generally treated of at the same time, I suppose you forbear to mention the Articles at present, as not allowing them to be a separate Part of Speech; at least not a necessary Part; because, as Wilkins tells us, "the Latin is without them." Notwithstanding which, when you consider with him that "they are so convenient for the greater distinctness of speech; and that upon this account, the Hebrew, Greek, Sclavonic, and most other languages have them;" perhaps you will not think it improper to follow the example of many other Grammarians: who, though, like you, they deny them to be any part of speech, have yet treated of them separately from those parts which they enumerate. And this you may very consistently do, even though you should consider them, as the Abbé Girard calls them, merely the avant-coureurs to announce the approach or entrance of a Noun."

magna est inter authores differentia: non solum in diversis linguis, sed etiam in eadem. In Latina, ne ad alias recurram, aliter Oratores, et aliter Poetæ aliter veteres, et aliter juniores sentiunt, &c. Iberes in Asia florere dicuntur, et linguam habere elegantem, et tamen nullam generum varietatem agnoscunt."--Caramuel, lxii.

1 Essay, part 3. chap. 3.

'J'abandonne l'art de copier des mots dits et répétés mille fois avant moi; puisqu'ils n'expliquent pas les choses essentielles que j'ai dessein de faire entendre à mes lecteurs. Une étude attentive faite d'après l'usage m'instruit bien mieux. Elle m'apprend que l'Article est un mot établi pour annoncer et particulariser simplement la chose sans la nommer: c'est à dire, qu'il est une expression indéfinie, quoique positive, dont la juste valeur n'est que de faire naître l'idée d'une espèce subsistente qu'on distingue de la totalité des êtres, pour être ensuite

H.-Of all the accounts which have been given of the Article, I must own I think that of the very ingenious Abbé Girard to be the most fantastic and absurd. The fate of this very necessary word has been most singularly hard and unfortunate. For though without it, or some equivalent invention,1 men could not communicate their thoughts at all; yet (like many of the most useful things in this world) from its unaffected simplicity and want of brilliancy, it has been ungratefully neglected and degraded. It has been considered, after Scaliger, as otiosum loquacissimæ gentis Instrumentum; or, at best, as a mere vaunt-courier to announce the coming of his master: whilst the brutish inarticulate Interjection, which has nothing to do with speech, and is only the miserable refuge of the speechless, has been permitted, because beautiful and gaudy, to usurp a place amongst words, and to exclude the Article from its well-earned dignity. But though the Article is denied by many Grammarians to be a Part of Speech; it is yet, as you say, treated of by many, separately from those

nommée. Cette définition en expose clairement la nature et le service propre, au quel on le voit constamment attaché dans quelque circonstance que ce soit. Elle m'en donne une idée nette et déterminée: me le fait reconnoitre par tout: et m'empêche de le confondre avec tout autre mot d'espèce différente. Je sens parfaitement que lorsque je veux parler d'un objet qui se présente à mes yeux ou à mon imagination, le génie de ma langue ne m'en fournit pas toujours la dénomination précise dans le premier instant de l'exécution de la parole: que le plus souvent il m'offre d'abord un autre mot, comme un commencement de sujet proposé et de distinction des autres objets; en sorte que ce mot est un vrai préparatoire à la dénomination, par lequel elle est annoncée, avant que de se présenter elle-même: Et voilà l'Article tel que je l'ai défini. Si cet Avant-coureur diminue la vivacité du langage, il y met en récompense une certaine politesse et une délicatesse qui naissent de cette idée préparatoire et indéfinie d'un objet qu'on va nommer: car par ce moyen l'esprit étant rendu attentif avant que d'être instruit, il a le plaisir d'aller au devant de la dénomination, de la désirer, et de l'attendre avant que de la posséder. Plaisir qui a ici, comme ailleurs, un mérite flatteur, propre à piquer le gout.-Qu'on me passe cette métaphore; puisqu'elle a de la justesse, et fait connoître d'une manière sensible une chose très-métaphysique."-Disc. 4.

1 For some equivalent invention, see the Persian and other Eastern languages; which supply the place of our Article by a termination to those Nouns which they would indefinitely particularize.

This circumstance of fact (if there were not other reasons) sufficiently explodes Girard's notion of Avant-coureurs.