in a language with which he is well acquainted, let him be persuaded that his thoughts are not clear enough: for, as Swift (I think) has fomewhere observed, "When the ❝ water is clear you will easily see to the bottom." The whole of this vague Chapter-Of Particles— (which fhould have contained an account of every thing but Nouns) is comprized in two pages and a half: and all the rest of the Third Book concerns only, as before, the Force of the names of Ideas. B. How is this to be accounted for? Do you fuppofe he was unacquainted with the opinions of Grammarians, or that he despised the subject? H. No. I am very fure of the contrary. For it is plain he did not defpife the fubject; fince he repeatedly and ftrongly recommends it to others: and at every step throughout his Effay, I find the most evident marks of the journey he had himself taken through all their works. But it appears that he was by no means fatisfied with what he found there concerning Particles: For he complains that "this part of Grammar has been as much neglected, . as fome others over-diligently cultivated." And fays, "that" He who would fhew the right ufe of Particles, "and what fignificancy and force they have," (that is, according to his own divifion, the right use, significancy, and force of ALL words except the names of Ideas) " must "take a little more pains, enter into his own thoughts, ❝ and observe nicely the feveral postures of his mind in "difcourfing." For these Particles, he says,-" are all "marks of fome action or intimation of the Mind; and "therefore, to understand them rightly, the several views, "poftures, ftands, turns, limitations and exceptions, and "feveral other thoughts of the Mind, for which we have "either none or very deficient names, are diligently to be " ftudied. Of these there are a great variety, much "exceeding the number of Particles." For himself, he declines the task, however neceffary and neglected by all others; and that for no better reason than-" I intend "not bere a full explication of this fort of figns." And yet he was (as he profeffed and thought) writing on the human Understanding; and therefore should not surely have left mankind ftill in the fame darkness in which he found them, concerning these hitherto unnamed and (but. by himself) undiscovered operations of the Mind. La In fhort, this feventh Chapter is, to me, a full confeffion and proof that he had not fettled his own opinion concerning the manner of fignification of Words: that it ftill remained (though he did not chuse to have it so understood) a Defideratum with him, as it did with our great Bacon before him and therefore that he would not decide any thing about it; but confined himself to the prosecution of his original inquiry concerning the first fort of Abbreviations, which is by far the most important to knowledge, and which he supposed to belong to Ideas. But though he declined the fubject, he evidently leaned towards the opinion of Aristotle, Scaliger, and Meff. de Port Royal and therefore, without having fufficiently examined their pofition, he too hastily adopted their notion concerning the pretended Copula-" Is, and Is not." He fuppofed with them, that affirming and denying were operations of the Mind; and referred all the other forts of Words to the fame fource. Though, if the different forts of Words had been (as he was willing to believe) to be accounted for by the different operations of the Mind, it was almost impoffible they should have escaped the penetrating eyes of Mr. Locke. ΕΠΕΑ ΠΤΕΡΟΕΝΤΑ, &c. CHAP. III. OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. B. You faid fome time ago, very truly, that the number of Parts of Speech was variously reckoned: and that it has not to this moment been fettled, what fort of difference in words fhould entitle them to hold a separate rank by themselves. By what you have fince advanced, this matter feems to be ten times more unfettled than it was before: for "you have discarded the differences of Things, and the differences of Ideas, and the different operations of the Mind, as guides to a divifion of Language. Now I cannot for my life imagine any other principle that you have left to conduct us to the Parts of Speech. H. I thought I had laid down in the beginning, the principles upon which we were to proceed in our inquiry into the manner of fignification of words. B. Which do you mean? H. The fame which Mr. Locke employs in his inquiry into the Force of words: viz.-The two great purposes of speech. B. And to what distribution do they lead you? H. 1. To words necessary for the communication of our Thoughts. And 2. To Abbreviations, employed for the fake of dispatch. B., How many of each do you reckon? And which are they? |