OR A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY BOOK. I. CHA P. Í. INTRODUCTION. Defign of the Whole. F Men by nature had been framed Ch. I. I for Solitude, they had never felt an Impulse to converse one with another: And if, like lower Animals, they had been by nature irrational, they could not have recognized the proper Subjects of Difcourfe. Since SPEECH then is the joint Energie of our beft and nobleft Faculties (a), (that is to fay, of our Rea (a) See V. I. p. 147 to 169. See alfo Note xv. P. 292, and Note xix. p. 296. of the fame Volume. Ch. I. Son and our focial Affection) being withal our peculiar Ornament and Distinction, as Men; thofe Inquiries may furely be deemed interefting as well as liberal, which either fearch how SPEECH may be naturally refolved; or how, when refolved, it may be again combined. HERE a large field for fpeculating opens before us. We may cither behold SPEECH, as divided into its conftituent Parts, as a Statue may be divided into its several Limbs; or else, as refolved into its Matter and Form, as the fame Statue may be refolved into its Marble and Figure. THESE different Analyzings or Refolutions conftitute what we call * PHILOSOPHICAL, or UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR. WHEN (b) Grammaticam etiam bipartitam ponemus, ut alia fit literaria, alia philofophica &c. Bacon. de Augm. Scient. VI. 1. And foon after he adds-Verumtamen hâc ipfà re moniti, cogitatione complexi fumus Grammaticam quandam, quæ non analogiam verborum ad invicem, fed analogiam inter verba et res five rationem fedulò inquirat. WHEN We have viewed SPEECH thus Ch. I. analyzed, we may then confider it, as compounded. And here in the first place we may contemplate that (c) Synthefis, which by combining fimple Terms produces a Truth; then by combining two Truths produces a third; and thus others, and others, in continued Demonftration, till we are led, as by a road, into the regions of SCIENCE. Now this is that fuperior and most excellent Synthesis, which alone applies itself to our Intellect or Reason, and which to conduct B 2 (c) Ariftotle fays τῶν δὲ κατὰ μηδεμίαν συμ πλοκὴν λεγομένων ἐδὲν ἔτε ἀληθὲς ἔτε ψευδές ἐστιν οἷον ἄνθρωπο, λεῦκΘ, τρέχει, νικά — of thole words Of which are fpoken without Connection, there is no one either true or false; as for instance, Man, white, runneth, conquereth. Cat. C. 4. So again in the beginning of his Treatife De Interpretatione, megi γὰρ σύνθεσιν καὶ διαιρεσιν ἔσι τὸ ψευδός τε καὶ τὸ ἀληθές. True and False are seen in Compofition and Divifion. Compofition makes affirmative Truth, Division makes negative, yet both alike bring Terms together, and so far therefore may be called fynthetical. |