Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN Philofophical Diflertation Upon the In LETS to HUMAN KNOWLEDGE IN A LETTER F R O M A OENTLEMANin theCOUNTRY TO HIS FRIEND at LONDON. LONDON-, Printed for T. COOPER at the Globe in Pater- Nojier Row. MDCCXXXIX. Price is. r o A Philofophical Diflertation Upon the INLETS to HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. DEAR SIR, IT was not from any Want of Zeal to com- ply with your Defires, that I hefitated for fome Time in promifing to lay before you in Writing, what I had faid to you t'other Morning over a Difh of Tea, about the Inlets of Knowledge to the Human Mind, much lefs was it mere Indolence, and Averfion from the Trouble of Writing what I had talked over ; for the whole Matter may be ftated by naming the feveral Inlets, or at moft by juft hinting at the different Kinds of Notices which ar- rive at the Mind by the different Avenues lead- ing to it. Though I own, at the fame Time, that this Subject may be extended to what Length and Bulk one pleafes, fo as to take in every Part of Learning, every Thing known or knowable ; and, to own the Truth frankly, here lay, here lyes the Difficulty with me, how to handle a Queftion, which I am amazed flhould ever be made one, and that every Man , B living ( 2 } living does not agree in all the real Ways of his coming at Knowledge, and that all o- ther Men neceflarily came by theirs in the fame Manner, whatever Variety there may be, or different Degrees, as well in the feveral Sci- ences as the Proficiency of thofe who ftudy them} nor can I conceive any other Hypothefis how it mould be fo, unlefs Men imagine it un- lawful to inclofe Commons, and that every where elie as well as in Parnafius, difficile eft proprie communia dicere ; or that they overlook and defpife what lyes always before them and under their Feet, and gaze about for fomething fublimely raifed above the common Reach and View. What elfe could poffibly have brought innate Ideas on the Stage, if indeed any among the Ancients ever held them in the Senfe in which Mr. Locke has overthrown them ? The Ancients meant no more by their Kowai f.v- ruavthan fuch clear Axioms as muft be aflent- ed to as foon as laid before, and confidered by a reafonable Mind ; and \vhether a Number of Moderns, confiderable enough to have made it a Sort of Principle worth attacking, ever held innate Ideas as produced by Mr. Locke, is more than I am Critick enough to determine; but whether it was a Giant of Straw drefTed up by others, or by the Man who has hacked it to Pieces, it is efte&ually (kin, and a Trophy erected with its Spoils. It is now Time to introduce Mankind into the World, and fuch Parts of it into his Acquaint- ance (3 ) ance as are to make up his Property in Know- ledge, in whofe Realms there is a much great* er real Difference and Difproportion betweeen their feveral Acquifitions than in their PofTeffi- ons of any other Species of Dominion or Wealth. For after all the imaginary Enjoyments of migh- ty Empires, the thoufandth Part of which the Monarch never beheld, and of vaft Treafures, of which he can only ufe his own perfonal Divi- dend either of Food, Lodging, or Raiment, and if he attempts to enlarge his Wants artificially, to have the Privilege of fupplying them with all the Contrivances of Luxury, he does but wafte and confume both, and finds his Plea- fure, Health, and even Wealth too, run away in the vain Purfuit: Whereas in the Fields of Knowledge, one Man may, and fome actual- ly do accumulate the Portions of many Thou- fands, and the more fuch an One collects the more he enjoys every Part of it, each Addition giving new Strength and Beauty to what he had before ; but in both Kinds there are Mifers to be found, who hoard up without any View of Ule or Communication, though in the Ex- ercife of Wealth confifts its real Pleafure as well as Worth ; and that in Science one can't be a Spendthrift, but the more he beflows on others, the more he improves his own Stock. I have long thought that in moft Cafes, and you feemed to agree with me in this Inftance, Truth is not only difcovered but proved by a bare State of the Fact, by juft tracing B 2 the ( 4) the Methods which Nature either takes or requires in her Actions, and how far her full Growth and Capacity of Knowledge does or may be made to extend. We bring our Senfes and fome of our In- ftincts, at leaft, into the World with us ; a new-born Infant flares at a Candle and ftarts at a Noife, and none can doubt but the mixt Ap- petite between Thirft and Hunger for itsNurfe's Breaft is as marp in it, as either of them are at any Time afterwards, when they come to be fplit into two very indifferent ones for folid and liquid Food, when they become neceflary for a larger Body, and flronger Conftitution, fit for vigorous Exercife or hard Labour. I muft obviate one Objection, or at leaft clear my Notion from a Miftake, which fome may be apt to make, as if Hunger, Thirft, and all the other Inftincts were only Senfations, and fo not to be diftinguimed from the Senfes and their Ideas. But till I come to treat of the Inftincts by themfelves, it mall fuffice to ob- ferve here, that Ideas of Senfation are raifed by the Prefence of the Objects, and the Imprefii- ons made by them on the refpective Senfes ; fo that there cannot poflibly be a negative, infi- nite, fpeculative, abftracted, general, partial, consequential or future Idea of actual Senfati- on j for an Idea of Senfation muft be direct, immediate and prefent ; whereas thefe ftrong Appetites are excited often by the Abfence, al- ways by the Want of the Object, whofe Appli- cation (5) cation never fails to prorogue the Appetite till another Call of Nature for its Return. But if the impulfive Appetite for Food cannot be re- fcued from being only a mere Idea of Senfa- tion, we muft reckon Hunger, Thirft, and Tafte to be the felf-fame Thing, and fynony- mous Terms for one another; but fure the Dog's eating Grafs when he is fick, the Ibis 9 and many other Inftances, from whence Phy- ficians have learned many Things and Surgeons more, we may be allowed to range under the Clafs of Inftincts. Every Bird, every Infect, the Beaver and many other Kinds are better Architects than many Nations both ancient and modern, who arrive no farther than a miferable Cabin, and others, as New Guinea and New Holland, who do not rife fb high. Nay Nations have loft it and recovered it, as Italy, others, as Egypt and Greece, who long excelled in Architecture, have loft it intirely, without Hope or Defire of recovering it. No- thing that is natural was ever loft, whatever is capable of Lofs or great Alteration is ar- tificial, and as it was introduced by Inftructi- on, and continued by Culture, fo it died on the ceafing of either of thefe, on its Parent or Fof- terer's withdrawing. Befides, averfive Inftincts or natural Antipathies, which areabfolutely necef- fary for the Prefervation of all the brute Species to feek their proper Food and avoid Poifon, cannot juftly be called Ideas of Senfation. But above all, is it not abfurd to reckon that irrefiftible Storge ( 6 ) Storge, which is fo powerful as to make the Hare expofe itfelf between the Dog and its young Brood, and the Hen to retire lafl from the Kite, only an Idea of Senfation ? Of which Senfe is it the Idea? But perhaps they will call this lafl a Paffion not an Appetite; let them do fo ; the animal Paffions are as much Inftinds as the Appetites, and as neceiTary for the Support of the feveral Species in which they are placed, and all of them equally prior and confequent- ly foreign to Inftruction and Culture, as like- wife different from Ideas of Senfation. And were it any Part of our prefent Bufmefs we might take notice of the abfurd Rant of the Stoics with their Apathy, which, befides the ImpofTibility of it, would be incompatible with the Subfiftence or Life of the Animal, whofeNa- ture and Welfare is provided for by anfwering the true final Caufe of its Initincts. There have been little Pretenders to Refinement, who have reduced the Senfes to one, and made the other four only different Modifications of Feel- ing ; another, with equal Wit, will multiply the Senfes into as large a Number, as ever you pleafe, or can find Words to exprefs, and make every Act of Approbation or Diflike which ei- ther the Mind or Body can exert, to be a dif- ferent Senfc; in which Cafe all the Languages in the World could not furniih us with Terms enough to call the hundredth Part of them by, fuch an infinite Number of Taftes (another very equivocal Word) could never befupplied with ( 7 ; with Names to diftinguifh them all clever- ly from one another ; how luxuriant are fome Men's Fancies ? How hard it would be to determine which of thefe Men of Genius de- ferved the Bays ? For the firft Year of human Life, the Child fees, without much heeding them, the feveral Objects about it, but for its Food, which is ne- ceffaryfor its Subfiftance, Nature has furnimed it with a moft (harp Inftincl, which will neither let it nor its Nurfe forget its Wants by the Language of crying, which proclaims them. After a few Months Children begin to laagh and fhout, and utter the feveral inarticulate Voices, which exprefs the feveral Inftincls of Joy, Pain, Sorrow, Fear, &c. which, by the by, are the fame among all the many Myriads of Men who ever have lived, or ever {hall live, in all the Ages and Nations of the World, and thefe conftitute the only natural Language; for Words muft be acknowledged for arti- ficial and arbitrary Signs of Things, whe- ther fenfible or fpeculative, but with this Dif- ference, that they are declarative of the firft, and introductive of the fecond, as I fhall foon prove. And whether Children could ever ac- quire this artificial Language, without Pains taken with them, and repeated Culture, we need not run to Herodotus for Pfammeticuss Project, nor to Purchas for the fame tried much later by Ecbar the Great Mogul, of having Children bred up by Mutes, to find out what 3 Language ( 8 ) Language they would fpeak ; both which Ex- periments ended, as they neceflarily muft, in their not fpeaking any : Let us but confider how we were taught and how we teach our Children to fpeak and know, and we mall find how the Matter (lands, as well as if we knew all that has pafled in every Age and Climate of the World. At about a Year old Children begin to call their Parents by two Words, which have been repeated to them many thoufand times before they could retain them, or get their Tongues to form their Sounds. For a few Years more, they are taught the Names of fuch Things as they ufually fee or are converfant about, and when they are learned a competent Number of them, they are taught to affirm and deny, which is a little Effay towards Grammar, and form- ing a Proportion, for it is the Copula which gives a determinate Signification and connects the Subject and Predicate into a Meaning, Words being otherwife loofe and of no Relation to Knowledge of any Kind ; and therefore the firft Thing which Children generally are, or pof- fibly can be taught, that looks towards Science, or what is called Morals, is the Nature of Yes and No, with the Difference between Truth and a Lie. As Children improve in their Stock of Words and the Ufe of them, other Things are taught them, even all the Sciences according to the different Degrees of Capacity, Opportunity, the Diligence of Teach- ers and their own. Now rg ; Now, Dear Sir, I have laid the thre2 In- lets of human Knowledge before you, and might therefore break off here, for I can't help think- ing, that as it does to me, fb it muft appear to every one who will confider the Fact as it really lyes in the Order of Nature ; and if I am to go on and prove what I imagine to be felf-evident, where (hall I flop ? What Mediums mail I fearch for by which to prove it ? But fmce you put me under a Neceffity of doing it, for fuch you tell me there is, to remove the common Prejudice againft any Thing that pretends to call in Que- flion the Sufficiency of Mr. Locke's Principle of Ideas of Senfation, for the fole Harbinger as well as a Magazine of human Knowledge, I muft fub- mit to it j and befides many Reafons which ap- pear unanfwerable to me, I will undertake to clofe this Letter, with the Testimony of Mr. Locke himfelf, full to my Point, in many Paf- fages of that very celebrated EfTay concerning the Human Underftanding, in which he has endeavour'd to eftablim the Senfes in the right- ful and fole PofTeffion of furnifhing the Mind with all that it is capable of receiving. I own I cannot conceive how any Thing can be produced by all poffible Combinations or Divifions of Ideas of Senfation, but fingle, com- pound or fplit Ideas of Senfation, Entia rationis of all Sorts and Sizes, if indeed the Mind would ever, or ever could divert itfelf with that idle Sport of Imagination, had not Language convey 'd forne Notions into it before, and taught C it it how to confidcr Subjects in whole and in part, how to join, divide, &c. Try this in your pwn Mind, and whether you can make any Thing out of Ideas of Senfation but Ideas of Senfation j in order to which make this other Experiment, whether you can revolve an Idea pf Senfation in your Mind without Words j yes, you can, for you received it without the Media- tion of Words, which were fo far from being jieceflary to convey it to you, that all the Words in the World cannot convey a new, original Idea of Senfation to any Perfon j the Cafe of Colours to a blind Man has been inflanced much oftener than there have been blind Men, Sounds to the Deaf, &c. All that Words fignify as to mere Ideas of Senfation is, that two Perfons con- verfing together, who have learn'd the Words appointed to ftand for fuch Things, the naming the Term refers the other to his own Memory for that Idea formerly known to him ; which, if it were not, all the Philofophers and Orators in the Univerie could not convey it to him. Now try again, whether you can make a Syllogifm in your own Mind without Words, or even affirm or deny the plainefl and moil fimple Thing in Nature, viz. Man is, or, Man i$ not (apablc of Speech and Rea/bn, both which muft be taught him, the laft by Means of the firft ; or, which is the fame Thing, he will not be able to make any Ufe pf his Reaibn, which will lye }n fuch clofe Abeyance to his Animal Inftin when I was in an Age, tho' hardly ever in a Situation fit for Study, that I might have morten'd the Time, if not have leflen'd the Fatigue of learning a new Language, by confining myfelf to think in it asfoon as I had got a tolerable Lift of Words by Heart. But this I may venture to affirm, that it coft Cato more Time and Pains to learn his Latin in the firft Years of his Life, than Greek at Fourfcore ; that it was the fame with Mithridates and all his Languages, and that every Scholar and Tra- veller learns the Language of another Age of Country in much lefs Time, and with much lefs Pains, than that which is call'd their Mother- Tongue. Formerly, Men born deaf were dumb of Courfe, and in the Courts of Afiatick Princes, where fuch are entertain'd in great Numbers, they are always call'd Mutes, as if the Defect lay in their Organs of Speech inftead of thofe of Hearing. But then thefe Mutes were taught a C 2 vifi- ( 12 ) vifiblc Language by Signs, in which they can con- verfe, and even recount Hiftories and every other Subject: of Difcourle ; I can't help giving you a remarkable Quotation from the latter End of the fecond Section, firft Chapter and fourth Book of Pufendorf de Jure Nature et Gentium. Add. Lucianus de Sa.tatione, ubi memoratur exemplum Sa/tafcris, fabidam de Adulterio Martis et Ve- rier h ita jalfando exprimcntis (by the by, the ancient Dancing was altogether hiftorical, thus Cicero accules Clodius quod Glaucum falta/Jet, and an old Greek Epigram, commending an ex- cellent Dancer, fays, that (he feem'd to be the very Perfons represented by her, and transformed as they were I/AJV* u$ AeKpvij, hiS->vog ug NIQ&S.) ut narrare wderetur j quern deln Barbarus qui- dam a Nerone peftit, utjibi Interpret!* 'vice ejjet Sic Dominus de Sancy, Legatus Gallicus in Turcia, retulit fe vidiffe duos Mutos, unum Na- tione Turcam, alterum Pcrfam^ led qui fe mutuo intelligcre ncn poj]ent t quod advcr/is Stgnis et Gcftibus utercntur^ tune repertum fuijjc tertium Mutum t qui iftis loco Interpret is injervire poterat. About an hundred Yearago, Velafco the Con- ftable of Ca/li/e's Brother was taught to fpeak, tho* born deaf and continuing fo, by making him obferve and practife the Motions which his Teachers made with their Tongue and Lips ; and I have feen fome In (lances of Perfons fo taught to fpeak, and ufe properly a great many Words, and by being taught to read and write, they might have been able to mafter more than one one Language. About twenty or thirty Years after this Inftance of Velafco y which was the firft, as I take it, of the Kind, Doctor Wallis found out a Way of making fome Perfons hear, whofe Ears were clofed, or otherwife incapable of receiving Sounds, by {having the Top of the Head, applying the Mouth to the Angle where the Sutures of the Skull meet, and fpeaking with a loud Voice, and by that Method taught them to fpeak likewife. But that was done by re- moving their Deafnefs in fome Meafure, and reaching the Nerves of Hearing by another and new Road, and is altogether different from the Language of the AJiatick Mutes, which is in- dependent both of the Ears and Tongues of the Speakers. And as all thefe Methods are ar- tificial and taught, they equally prove my Poil- tion, that every Language, and every Way of uttering it is adventitious, that all Hierogly- phicks and Reprefentations of Words are but different Kinds of Writing, therefore Words are as neceflarily older than their Pictures, as every Original is before its Copy, as they are in every particular Man prior to ;his Speculative Thoughts, they having been convey'd to him in that Ve- hicle ; thus a deaf Man "may be taught to fee Thoughts in Words, and a blind Man to hear them, therefore thefe two are moft juftly term'd the Senfes of Difcipline. Now, Sir, give me Leave to confider Nations and their Acquiiitions in Science, as I have done it in particular Men, as (14) as Plorus has drawn his Epitome of the Roman Hiftory by the Periods of Man's Life. All thofe Nations, of whom we have au- thentick Accounts within the Hiftorical Age, furnifh us with the Arrival of Arts and Sciences among them. Thucydides owns Greece to have been long barbarous, and we are fufficiently in- form'd, that it was as much fo as either ancient 'Thrace or modern Tartary, till Tbales the Mile- Jlan brought Literature and Civility among them from Ionia and the Eaft. Macedon was Jook'd on as barbarous long after the Mufes had fettled at Helicon, and Minerva at Athens. At two Periods the Greeks brought the Arts Weft ward, both Times by their own Misfortune. Horace, frankly acknowledges that Grecia capta Jerum Vittorem cepit et Artes intulit agrefti Latio ; and indeed he could not deny it, for in every Part of Learning as well as Poetry, befides their rim- ing ad Athenas Atticas, the conftant Rule was Exemplaria Greca nocJurna ver/are manu verfare diurna. Samos and afterwards Rhodes produced many more learned Men for fome Centuries, than are to be found in Greece, Egypt, and all the Provinces of Afia and Africa^ where the Arts once flourHh'd fo triumphantly, and from whence Colonies of Literature were fent out to flock the reft of the World. India had its Gym* rtofopbijis, Perfia its Magi, and every Scythian might have been a Philoiopher as well as Ana- charts, who would have gone in Queflof it, and kept ( 15) kept the fame Company that he did. Egypt had two very long Periods of Glory in the Sci- ences ; the firft for fome Ages under their old Monarchs, the fecond begun by the Ptolemies, and which lafted, with great Variety in its De- grees of Luftre, till the Caliph Omar entirely extinguifh'd it, in the Deftrudlion of that im- menfe Treafure of learning the Alexandrian Li- brary. Cyrene in Lybia afforded Men of Figure in the Sciences, and Arabia fhone in Learning as in Arms for a Century or two ; their Progrefs in both was rapid, but foon ftopt fhort ; and no Doubt there were Men of Learning in Bar- bary, who bore fome Proportion to that noble Collection of Books in the Library of Fez, made by their great Almanfor, who proceeded on Principles entirely different from the mad En- thufiafm of Omar. I do not doubt but Portu- gal and Mufcovy will vie with other Nations in the Sciences, which they are now fetting up ; for they will grow in any Soil, will thrive under every Climate where they are propagated with equal Care. That Part of Europe and Africa which conftituted the Roman Empire after its Divifion into two, was to be civilized a fecond Time > the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and many other hard Names of our barbarous Scythian Anceftors, had defaced almoft every Monument they found of Greece, Rome or Humanity ; and they werq hardly quite tame ( as the perpetual little Wars, Feuds and MafTacres, between all the noble Fa- milies ( 16 ) milies in Italy, Prance, Germany, and, in fhort, every Country over which the Northern Inun- dation prevail'd, fufficiently evidence ) when the taking of Conjlantinople by Mahomet the Great, fent Greece again to reclaim the Weftern Eu- rope. Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, re- ceived their learned Men and Books with open Arms, and founded that noble Library at Bitda, which fell with the City into the Hands of the Turks, was by them carried away, and after a long Abode in Turkey, was reftored to the Em- peror by a Peace ; and tho' of all Furniture Books are moft apt to fuffer and be dropt on every Removal, yet fo many of them remain, as to make that of Vienna one of the beft Libra- ries in Europe. The Mcdicis foon after did the fame at Florence, as far as the wealthier! private Family in the World could go ; and Leo the tenth of that Houfe gave them all Encourage- ment and good Reception at Rome. The Pala- tine Family ranfack'd all Germany for Books to make the largeft Collection at Heidelberg, which was then known to be any where, and which is now the chief Glory of the Vatican. Francis the^r/?, whofe Character was Vanity and Am- bition, was told that it was no ill Road to Fame, to get Authors to fpeak well of one, and there- fore Learning made its Way into France too in his Time, and under his Patronage. No Man ever did more to begin it in any Country, than Cardinal Ximenes did in Spain, by his Encou- ragement to Men of Learning, his fplendid Edition ( '7 ) Edition of the King of Spams Polyglot Bible, his building and endowing the Univeriity of dlcala des Henares, &c. but it has flood ftock flill ever fince. If Greece or Egypt were to be reftored to Dominion, they muft fend to their Scholars in the Weft, to repay them Part of that Learning their Forefathers borrow'd from their's, and they muft beg Schoolmafters from the Pofterity of their former Pupils. I fliall fay very few Words about our own Country. Ju-> lius Cafar found us in favage Circumftances enough, but the Roman Arts were planted here with as good Succefs as in any other Colony ; and Agricola had hardly reduced the whole Ifland, when, as JuwnalteVte us, de conducendo loquitur jam Rhetore Thule^ fo faft did Polite* nefs travel among them ; thus it continued at the fame Pitch, till the Saxons extirpated or ra- vaged all, and gave us nothing in their Stead, but a Set of independent Rules and Cuftoms, to which mere Prescription has given the venera- ble Name and Force of Laws among us. No Body ever imagined that the Lurdan mended any Thing j every Peafant in the Nation can tell Stories of the Danifh Tyranny, can account for the Original of pledging the Friend who drinks to him ; and a Maflacre of all the Danes in one Night, whether true or falfe, is equally the Tra- dition of England, Scotland and Ireland* And yet Denmark^ fince that Time, has produced two or three pretty good Scholars, and with the Help of Iceland^ near half a Score. Nor is Lap- D land land too cold for the Sciences, as both OJam Riidbeck the Father and Son witnefs : The firft was not fatisfied to produce himfelf as an In- ftance of it on any other Subject, unlefs he fuborned an huge Deal of Learning to depofe in three whole Folios, that Scandinavia was the original Glebe, where the firft Men and the Golden Apples of the He/perian Gardens grew, with guardian Dragons ; in thefe hyperborean Regions, he fays, we muft look for the true Sight of the famed Atlantick Territory, and find the Pillars of Hercules at the Mouth of the Sound. The fecond has beftow'd a good large Quarto call'd Nora Samolad, to (hew that the Lappijh Tongue can be traced up to and lodged in the Hebrew, and that the Country is, at this very Day, the moft comfortable Portion of the Globe to dwell in, as producing much honefter Men, and better Strawberries than the fined Parts of Italy ; that there is not fo much as a Lawyer in the whole Province. I own, I fhould be apt to choofe that as the moft agreeable Country to live in, which offer'd me a Neigh- bourhood made up of the wifeft and worthieft Men in the World, in Spite of Soil, Climate, and all that Mr. de Maupertuis and his Brother Aftronomers can fay about their difmal Winter at Tornea ; and, if Glaus Rudbeck the Younger can prove his Point as to the great Worth of the Inhabitants, I will much more readily take his Word for Lapland's being Paradife now, than all his Father's Erudition that it was fo about fix thou- ( '9 J thoufand Years ago. From the Normans we re- ceived no good Thing but the long Bow. Con- queft and Oppreffion may prove but temporary Evils, they often wear out, and every Alma- nack tells us, that the Saxon Line was reftored in Henry \hz fecond + but whether the tedious Forms, and intricate Chicane of the Norman Pleadings, have not been for fo many hundred Years, and ftill continue a moft grievous Yoke of Bondage on the Neck of Juftice, I refer my- felf to the Speeches and Proceedings in Parlia-* ments ever fince, in order to redrefs forne of them. When Learning was dealing out among the Nations, when it was reputable and even beneficial to have it, we took our Share among the reft, and kept it a good While ; but I have been hearing fome learned Men fay, for thefe forty Years paft, that it is going off our Stage fafter than ever it came on, and I profefs I can't help thinking that I perceive fomething of it myfelf, infomuch that I have now and then fome fplenetick Fits on that Score ; therefore I in- treat you to inform me, in this Diftance that I am from all that belongs to Letters, whether there remain any tolerable Hopes that our Uni- veriities will be able or inclined to ftand their Ground, and make Head for any Time againft the boifterous Attacks of Ignorance and Malice from fo many Quarters. But this we can demonftrably gather, from the Progrefs of Learning among the dif- D 2 ferent (20) ferent Nations of the World, that there is as direct a Traffick for Science, as for any other Commodity or Manufacture ; and in every Country, where Hiftory has been tolerably pre- ferved for any Time, we can trace the Country from whence, the Time when, and the Names of the Perfons who imported thofe Sciences among them ; and, as in England, point out the feveral Periods of the Introduction, Progrefs, Declenfion, Death and Revival of Literature among them. And, I think, it would be a good Piece of Criticifm to determine the original Cli- mate of Literature, and aflign its proper Longi-r tude and Latitude, which, perhaps, it would not be impoffible to do, by tracing the Expor-r tation and Importation of Sciences, Languages and Cuftoms, from one Nation to another. And if Eailern,Wefl:ern, Northern and Southern Nations did agree ( in fuch Sort of hiftorical Memorials as they happen to have tranfmitted down to them ) on any central Country, whence thefe Things claim'd their Extraction, however they came to fpring up there, it would he no un- curious Point gain'd in the antiquarian Way, and would be, at leaft, an amufing Queftion folved as to the Chronology and Geography of Arts and Sciences. I will alter my Opinion, and not till then, when I meet with a Man who fpeaks a Language he never heard, was taught or ftudied, or a Nation where Learning grows pp of it felf, without fowing, planting and daily Culture, Jf Knowledge were th,e fpontanepus Growth ( 21 ) Growth of the Soil, it would fpring up in every Nation, tho' with ever fo different Crops, as of Egypt or Sicily for Corn, in Refpect of Sweden or Norway ; no Nation could be quite deftitute, nor could any ever lofe it, nor do I fee how any particular Man could be utterly ignorant ; the very Term, Learning, {hews how we came by our Knowledge, whatever it is. I mail certainly think myfelf in the right, while Charlemagne, j41fred> and other Founders of learned Semina- ries continue in fome Vogue, while ProfefTors are entertain'd in them, and any of our Youth fent to Schools and Colleges to improve their Fa- culties therein. And if the deep Learning of the Bench, and moft copious Eloquence of the Bar, bear any Proportion ( as no Doubt they do ) to the many magnificent Inns built for their Service, near twenty, I think, for Attor- neys, -betide the three grand ones of Court, Pooler's Commons, &c. Neither the Lyceum , Stoa, nor all the Academies of Greece and Rome ever fent out fuch Armies of Students, fufficient to conquer by downright Force all the Tranf- greflbrs in any Nation, if their wonderful Prowefs were once intirely directed that Way, their Forces united, all their Troops retain'd or* the fame Side, under the Conduct of fome future Lycurgus. Let us now caft our Eyes over thefe three different Inlets [theSenfes, the Inftincts and Language] which convey Notices to us, and fee what each furnimes us with for our Ufe. Ideas ( 22 ) Ideas of Senfation furnifh the Brutes, and altogether untaught Men with Objects of Ufe only to their Inftincts, to enable them to exert thofe for their perfonal Prefervation, to provide them with the Means of Subfiftence, and to avoid Dangers ; and of this Truth the New Ho Hand and New Guinea Savages are as evident a Proof, as ariy other Species of mere Animals. To the inftructed Man they afford a vaft Quantity of Materials to exercife Know- ledge on, but without being taught that Know- ledge to apply them to artificial Parpofes, tliey would fignify no more to us, betides afTifting Ac^cf Te and again, here Nature refembles the Soil the ( 46 ) the Injirutfor of Youth, the Hujbandman, and the rational Principles and Precepts which are taught the Seed. And all tkeje, fays he, / peremptorily affirm to have met and conjpired to compkte the Souls of thofe great Men Pytha- goras, Socrates, and Plato. And happy is that Man and beloved by the Gods, by ivbo/e Bounty fhey are conferred. If you deiire more of it, I refer you to the Treatife itfelf, which is, at leaft, as well worth the reading as any Thing that great Philoibpher has left us. Thales the Milefan, the firft Importer of Learning among the European Greeks, was fully fenfible of this Truth, when he thanked the Gods for having made him a Man not a Brute, a Man not a Woman, a Greek and not a Barbarian : And Plato concluded his Life with a Thankfgiving to the Gods for having made him a Man, a Creek, and the Scholar of Socrates. I will clofe this with one Quotation from Ariftotle, about the End of his /'cventh Book of Politicks, wara T6vj xa.1 Transact TO TTpotrhefTrov @vht]a.i Ttis tyvvitos ctvcwtyocvr, all Art and Difcipline intends to fill up the Defects of Nature, to fupply what is wanting. It were eafy to heap Quotations to this Point, nay every Book writ for the Inftruclion of Men, and all pre- tend to have that View, is a Proof of the Po- fition that we need it, as every Butcher and Cook is that we require daily Food. As (47 ) As I took notice that the common De- finition of Man, Animal Rationale, appeared to me defective, as not fufficiently expreffjve of his true Nature, but full fraught with the Ab- ftirdity of innate Ideas, as if he came into the World with all his intellectual Furniture about him, whereas his Growth both of Mind and Body, is not only gradual but very flow, but the Mind much the moft fo, which is ne- ver too old to learn if it began young ; I hold it abfolutely neceflary to make a diftinction be- tween mere Nature and Nature improved by Culture, between Nature dreft and undreft. All Men, who know their Ufe and can procure them, wear Clothes, yet I could not allow Ani- mal Vejlitum to be, by any Means, not only a complete, but even a fufficiently difcriminating Article between him and the brute Generation ; becaufe, as every Man is born naked, fo we find in many Places Myriads of Savages who have not yet found out any Clothing where- with to cover themfelves. Had that been al- lowed a proper Definition, Hobs would have fent him into the World armed Cap a Peed y his Scimiter drawn, and Arm raifed to affert his natural Rights by the Death or Conqueft of every other Man j and Cumberland would have introdu- ced him in a loga pura y with the Olive-Branch held out in his Hand, and he bawling as loud as ever he could for his Life, for a Truce and a free Conference, in order to invent Languages, make Laws, and choofe Magiftrates from among 2 them- ( 48 ) themfelves, for the neceflary Support and Com- fort of focial Life: Whereas really the poor Creature knows nothing of one or t'other, but juft as he happens to be bred up, and he culti- vates the Arts of Peace or War as he is applied to either, and fometimes both in their Turns. It feems very plain to me, that nothing ought to enter into the Definition of untaught Nature, but what every Individual of the Species is by its mere untaught Nature ready to do at all Times, and in all Places j or that what no Individual of an animal Species ever does at any Time, or on any Occafion, without long Cul- ture, and in which the feveral individuals differ exceedingly from each other, not only as to the Dexterity of doing it well, but the Ability of doing it at all, fuch artificial Acquifitions are properly to be afcribed to Education which in- troduced them, and not to the mere animal Na- ture of that Species, not one of which ever arrived at it, but by reiterated Inftruclion, and a flow, laborious Progrefs. Cicero de legibus Li.SS. 10. P. 37. Edit. Cantab. 1727. Nihil eft enim unum uni tarn fimile, tarn par, quam omnes inter nofmetipfos fumus. Quodfi aepra- vatio confuetudinum, fi opinionum varitas non imbed Hi tatem animorum torqueret G? flefteret, quocunque c&piflet fui nemo ipfe tarn pmilis effet, quam omnes Junt omnium : Itaque qu&cunque eft hominis defnitio, una in omnes valet. Quod argumenti Jatis eft, nullam dij/imilitudinem effe ingenere; quaji ejfet, non una omnes dcfinitio con- tineret (49) ttheret. Etenim ratio > qua una prttftamus bel- luis, per quam conjeftura va/emus, argumenta- mur, refellimus, differimus, conficimus aliquid y concludimus, certe eft communis, dottrina diffe- rens y difcendi quidem facultate par: Nam & Jenfibus eadem omnia comprehenduntur - y & ea qua movent fenfus it idem moment omnium ; quaque in nnimis imprimuntur^ de quibus ante dixi^ in- choatte intelligentia , fimiliter in omnibus impri- muntur 5 inter prefque eft mentis oratio^ verbis difcrepans, fententiis congruens. No Philofo- pner would define a Parrot animal loquens^ though it can be taught to pronounce feveral Words ; or put ail the Tricks a Dog may be taught in- to the fpecifick Definition of that Creature, for how can that be a true fpecifick Definition which takes in but a few of the Individuals that compofe it ? In a Defcription of Dogs, one might properly take notice of their Docili- ty ; fo far as it reaches, it makes the valuable Part of their Character j as a Dog may be bred up to be a Blood-Hound, though without understanding the Purpofe he is applied to, and our Anceflors the Scythians made great Ufe of them in their Wars. But to return to the human Definition, I hope I may by this Time fafely deliver it thus, Homo eft animal Jermonis capax, eoque interprete etiam G? rationis, Man is an Animal capable of being taught to fpeak, and by the Means of Speech to reafon alfo. H I was f 5 ) I was juft going to conclude with a few Quotations from Mr. Locke, when a Couple of others came in my Way, from which I thought I could clearly {hew the Ufefulnefs of diitinguiiliing the different Canals or Avenues by which the Notices of different Things ap- proach our Minds. Sexfus Empiricus in feveral Places produces the Authority of Democritus in his Canons, to prove, that there are two Kinds of Knowledge, one of the Sen/'es, the other of the Mind; of which that by the Mind he calls Know- ledge, accounting it that which may be trujiedfor the judgment of Truth ; that by the Senfes he calleth dark and ohfcure, denying it to have any Certainty as to the Knowledge of Truth, &c. There is more to the fame Purpofe in Scxtus Empiricus, from whom this is literally tranflat- ed, otherwife I fhould rather have expreffed it thus There are two Kinds of Notices of which he calls that by the Mind Knowledge But as he always ufes the fame Term yvune throughout the Quotation, I let the Word Knowledge ftand in the Tranflation though it is plainly equivocal, and fignifies Idea of Sen- fation in one Place, and Notion or Science in another. The Author had difcovered the Glim- merings of the Truth, therefore what was im- perfectly underftood muft of courfe be indif- tinclly worded. Had he confidered that diffe- rent Objects give different Notices of themfelves to the Mind, and by different Ways of Ap- proich, he might clearly have (hewn their Di- verfity, . . verfity, pointed out their Limits, and the Road which each of them muft neceffarily have taken to come at us. I little expected to have look'd into, much lefs quoted any Thing from the Writings of a Divine in this little logical Eflay, but a Friend mewing me a Paflage or two which he had drawn out of a couple of Dr. Soufh's Ser- mons, and left them with me for my Confidera- tion, J was very well pleafed with it, fince it confirms me in the Perfuafion of the Simplicity, Truth and Ufefulnefs of the Principles I lay down, by mewing me what ftrange learned Blunders the greateft Men make, when they will foar out of Sight in Search of Refinements. I will make Ufe of the PaiTages without tran- fcribing the Whole ; I will mark fuch as are the Doctor's own Words, and that you may fee that 1 have reprefented him fairly; I begin with that taken from the firft of his two Difcourfes on 2 Theft ii. 1 1 . in, the fourth Volume of the Edition in Otfavo, from p. 358 to 363. The Species fenjibiles and Species i?itelligibiles are Terms long known and uied by Logicians, which Terms I chofe to tranflate by Ideas of Senfation and fpeculative Notions ; upon their obferving the va/l Difference between the fame Objeft, as it ivas fenfible, and affected the Senje, and as it was intelligible, and moved the Under/landing they held the NeceJJity of another Principle ivitb- out the Soul, to advance the Object a gradufenji-. bili ad gradum intelligibilem> and this they cand Ha an ( 52 ) an Intelletfus Agens, But what this Intelleftus Agens was, how it acted in this Operation, and enabled the human Underflanding to apprehend fpeculative and abstracted Notions, and to apply fenfible Objects to fcientifick Purpofes, they are not fo well agreed, nor are altogether fo clear as in (hewing the Necefiity of fuch an extrin- fkk Principle. Plato, and Ariftotle after him (a.< borrowing it from him) and federal of the mojl eminent of the Peripatetick School, both an- (tent and modern, hold, that this fpi ritual Light neceffary -to enable the Object to affefl the intellect five Faculty, which yet the Objscl cannot give it Jeff I nor yet fir ike or wove the Faculty without it, is an Irradiation or Illumination of God, That fopreme Intelligence (whofe Body they fay is Light and his Soul Truth) which mines both on the Object and the Faculty, and enables the Objects to affect the Mind, and the Mind to conceive intellective Notions, and to draw fcien- tifick Confequences from the Objects. For they inferred from \hz fifth-Chapter of Ariftotle' s third Book H/ ij/wfcj;*, that bejides the native in- herent Light of the Intellect (which yet is ejj'en- tial /Q it, as it is a Faculty made to apprehend \ and take in its Objects after a fpiritual Way ) there is alfo another Light in the Nature of a Medium, beaming in upon it, by a continual Ef- fux and Emanation from the great Fountain of Light, and irradiating this intellectual Faculty, together with the Species or Reprefcntations of Ihings imprinted thereupon. [ This lail Quota- tion ( 53 ) tion is from the fecond Sermon of the third Vo- Jume, p. 55, 56. ] Others of them have other Ways of endeavouring to explain it ; fome ima- gined, that they confulted the Honour and Dignity of human Nature by afferting, that though there is and muft be an Intelletfus Agens^ yet that it is no more than a different Fa- culty of the fame Soul^ or a different Function of the fame Faculty. But not to trouble you with any more of this Sort of Learning, which you underfland fo much better than I do, this is certain, that as there muft be Objects prefented to the outward Senfes in order to ftrike them, and produce Ideas of Senfation, fo it will be equally impoffible to produce Notions in the Mind, unlefs the Species intelligibiles be placed in a proper objective View, and fairly laid be- fore it for its Peruial, for de non apparentibus et non exiftentibus eadem eft Ratio. Now all the Queftion is, by what Light, through what Ave- nue, and in what Vehicle they approach the Mind, and are received into it ? The former Hypothefis ( of an univerfal divine Illumination, on the fenfible Objects to make them productive of intellectual Improvements, and on the Mind to enable it to extract fuch fpiritual Wonders out of them ) is partly unintelligible, highly vain, dangeroufly enthufiaftick, and falfe in Fact -, for there are many Hundreds of ignorant, unfpecu- lative Men for one that is otherwife ; befides, that this Hypothefis does not provide Objects, proper Objects, true Species Intelligibiles for the Under- Understanding, but only pretends to qualify it for grafting fome fcientifick Ufes on fenfible Ob- jects, fo that we are yet to look out for fome other Harbinger to introduce, and fome Cloth- ing to make them, as I may term it, vifible to the Understanding, and cognifable by it. Innate Ideas will anfwer no Purpofe nor ftand an Ar- gument, but Inftruction in and by Language will hold univerfally, will take in every Indivi- dual of the human Species through all that infi- nite Variety of intermediate Degrees, between the moft learned and knowing Man that ever was, and the dumb Savage of the Foreft : The true Principle is always fimple and clear, and, for that Reafon, too often over-look'd for elaborate Errors, with fo very fmall a Mixture of Truth in them, that there is hardly enough to make them flick together ; infomuch that it requires fome Pains, if not Sagacity, to find it out, and feparate it from the reft of the Tram. Nay, I can't fee how this fame Irradiation could work its intellectual Effect without Words ; for the brighteft Light, mining on a fenfible Object, will not make it vifible to a blind Man ; much lefs will it create an intellectual Object for the Mind, or convey it without the Mediation of Lan- guage, let Raymond Litlly fay as many witty Things as he pleafes on Fire's being the Parent of Motion, Life and Thought. Much lefs will I trouble you with the idle Dreams of the Stotcks on the Topick of Language, as if every Word- in it were either a natural Sign of fomething, or ( 55) or that there was a natural Reafon, at leaft, why that particular Word was taken up, or offer'd itfelf to fignify that Thing ; as if Greek were the only Language in the World, or the firft one ; and a Spice of that Conceitednefs feems to run through the Cratylus of Plato, though there are a great many valuable and curious Things in that Dialogue. This Whim of the Stoicks about their Words puts me in Mind of one fbmewhat akin to it among another Sort of Quacks, that every Vegetable has a fufficient Signature imprefs'd on it by Nature, to difcover its good or bad Qualities by, not only whether it was efculent, medicinal or poifonous, but of what Sort, and to what Part the Good or Harm was to be done, Cephalicks, Stomachicks, Car- diacks, Hepaticks, Pulmonicks, &c. But I fear, that if Inftincl: did not Guard the brute Genera- tion, and Culture the human, more would die by Poifon in a Month, than ever were fwept away by Murrain and Plague in a Year. I can hardly forgive the Stoicks for pretending to take away the Inftincts by their Philofophy, and account- ing fo wretchedly for Language, which is ano- ther and the moft confiderable of the three Inlets of Knowledge. The Stoicks were the moft proud uncomfortable Sect of all the Sopbifts, yet Seneca prefers them without Hefitation to all their Gods, for this wife Reafbn, that the Gods can't help being good, but their wife Man is good in Spite of himfelf and the Gods too, Vittrix Cauja Diisplacuit,fed vifla Catoni j and M ( 56 ) in the demure Pride and fullen Triumph of hb Victory confifts his infinite Glory and Reward, and he rejects the Offer of any other with Scorn. Yet this lame Seneca^ if he is not foully bely'd with Agrippina, was as errant a Debauchee as Ariflippus^ who, being a jolly Companion and loving the Diverfions and good Chear of a Court, profefs'd the Vices of the Company he kept, to which Seneca added Hypocrify and Avarice. All Seneca 's Wealth would be but a Species fen- fibiles to jE/op's Cock; a curious repeating Watch is no more, to the Beaft or mere Savage ; to a Child it is a pretty Play-thing, to a fine Lady it is a Trinket at her Side, to which other fmaller ones hang ; to the Beau it is a Memoran- dum to pull out to mew that he has it, as alfo an Aflignation on his Hands which it puts him in Mind of, it is his Companion to fpeak to him when he is alone, arid to tell what o' Clock it is when he can't fleep of Nights ; others confider its Ufe, and that it is a fine Piece of Workman- fhip, but not one of a thoufand knows its confti- tuent Parts, and the mechanical Principles by which they are put together ; and I was told of a very brave Highlander who dalh'd a Watch he had taken in Battle on the Ground, and kill'd the little purring Animal to make a Snuff-Box of its Shell. Having mention'd a Watch, I can't avoid juft hinting on the exceeding flow Pro- grefs of many Arts, if not all ; Pocket Watches are not of long Standing, Repeating Clocks arc not near an hundred Years old, Repeating i Watches ( 57 ) Watches not above two or three and fifty Years, the Orrery but about twenty. Whether we look to manual Arts, as Painting, Sculpture, Building, or to the Exercifes and Operations of the Mind, we (hall find them all owing to In- ftrudtion, Pains taken with the Learners and by them, Encouragement, Emulation and much Time to bring them to fuch Perfection as they have arrived at. Diodorus Siculus fays exprefly, that there was not one fine Building in Egypt till Sefoftris introduced them, wherever he learned his Skill ; and Aiigitftus boaftcd at his Death, that he had found Rome of Brick but left it of Marble ; and the fine Tafte of Building began to decay foon after the Age of Tifus, to revive a little under Diode/tan, and in the Eaft afterwards under 'Juftinian ; and fince the Re- vival of Arts about two Centuries ago in Italy, we find to this Day,* the Style of Painting and Building of the different Schools very difcerni- ble among the Artifts train'd up in them. The Augujlan Age excell'd in every Art but one, O- ratory, which expired with Cicero and the Com- mon-Wealth, for the ftrong Reafofls given by Quintilian or Tacitus, whoever of them writ the Dialogue de Caufis corrupts Eloq^uentice ; the Attick Oratory flourifh'd only while Athens Was its own Sovereign ; the Macedonian Domi- nion forced Demofthenes to kill himfelf, and Oratory to fupprefs its Voice in Greece for ever ; for nothing fucceeded after but little flattering Harangues, and paultry Declamations on ficti- I tious tious Subjects. There is Matter for more than an hundred Pancirollus's to write, de Rebus in- mentis et deperditis, or to (hew that Inftitution and Encouragement fet Induftry at work juft as they pleafc, Jlnt Mec&nates non deerunt Placet ^ Marones, and that the whole rational, fcienti- fick and moral Nature of Man, is that fecond one which Culture began and Cuftom has ri- veted j his intellectual Improvements are the Arts of fpeaking and thinking, and the very Terms, Ethicks in Greek and Morals in Latin, {hew that they were derived from Cuftom. It is now Time to produce Mr. Locke's Teftimony againft his Authority, which is fo decifively urged for Ideas of Senfation, being the only Inlets of Human Knowledge ; and I {hall afterwards (hew from Mr. Locke, how fo acute a Reafoner came to fall into this Inconfif- tency with himfelf and with the Truth. Firft then, every Argument, which Mr. Locke ufes to prove that there are no innate Ideas, ferves as ftrongly againft the PofTibility of Men's attain- ing Language, which is declarative of Ideas and in trodu&ive of Notions without teaching. L. i. c. ii. . 23. p. 12. of his Eflay concerning Hu- man Underftanding, fourth Edition printed by Churchill, 1700, he has thefe Words. For,jirft it is evident, they have learned the 'Terms and their Signification ; neither of which was born with them. But this is not all the acquired Knowledge in the Cafe: The Ideas them/fives, about which the Proportion is t are not born with them ( 59 ) them no more than their Names, but got after- wards we by Degrees get Ideas and Names.- When Children have, by repeated Senfations, got Ideas fix *d in their Memories , they begin, b\ De- grees, to learn the Uje of Signs, and wken they have got the Ski 'I to apply the Organs of Speech to the framing of articulate Sounds, they begin to make Uje of Words, tojignify their Ideas to others: < fhe/e verbal Signs they fometimes borrow from others, andjometimes gination of any Thing exifiing, which we would conceive ; but our Thoughts terminate in the ab- flrac~l Ideas of thofe Virtues, and look not farther as they do, when we /peak of an Horfe, or Iron, whofe fpecifick Ideas we confider not, as barely in the Mind, but as in Things tbemfehes, which afford the original Patterns of thofe Ideas. But in mixed Modes, at leajl the moft confiderable Parts ( 62 ) Parts of them, which are moral Beings, we con- fider tbe original Patterns, as being in the Minds and to thofe we refer for the diftinguijbing of par ~ ticular Beings under Names. And hence I think it is, that thefe Effences of the Species of tnix'd Modes are by a more particular Name call'd No- tions, as by a peculiar Right, appertaining to the Underftanding. P. 280. 1. 3. c. 9. . i, 2. Mr. Locke makes a double Ufe of Words, the fir ft for the recording of our own Thoughts fecondly, t/je other for the communicating of our 'Thoughts to others. Whereby, as it were, we talk to our- Jclves, thofe Thoughts that are recorded in our Memories. P. 281. 1. 3. c. 9. . 4. Now Jince Sounds have no natural Connexion with our Ideas, but have all their Signification from the arbi- trary Impojit-on of Men. And the Section im- mediately following has thefe Words, Words having naturally no Signification, the Idea [I think that Notion ought to be added at leaft, accord- ing to his own Rule, quoted from the twelfth Section of theji/ib Chapter of the third Book, p. 255.] which ec.c 1 ft '."I is for, muft be learned and retain d by thofe, who would exchange Thoughts, &c. With Mr. Locke's good Leave, and by Mr. Locke's own Authority, I do aflert over again in his Words taken from p. 247. 1. 3. c. 4. . u. thatjimple Ideas are only to be got by thofe Impre/pons Objects themfehes make if they are not received this Way, all the Words in the World made UJe of to explain, or define any 9J their Names, . will never be able to produce m us ( 63 ) us the Idea it Jiands for ; for Words being Sounds, can produce in us no other ftmple Ideas than of thofe very Sounds, nor excite any in us but by that voluntary Connexion between them and the Ideas we had made them ftand for. 1 have quoted this twice, and if Mr. Locke had confi- der'd it as often, befides fuch other Quotations as I have taken from him, and ten times as many to the fame Purpofe, which I could have taken, he had not continued to aflert, that Ideas of Senfation were our only Source and Maga- zine of Knowledge ; he would, he muft have allow'd Notions their own Inlet, or Conduit Pipes of Words through the whole Eflay, as well as in the Quotation laft produced for the fecond Time, and p. 255. 1. 3. c. 5. . 12. alfo quoted before. I (hall therefore add but a very few Proofs more from Mr. Locke, for the Truth againft his own Hypothefis, p. 283. 1. 3.0. 9. . 9. For if we will obferve how Children learn Languages, wejhalljind, that to make them un- derjland what the Names of ftmple Ideas or Sub- Jiancesftandfor, People ordinarily foew them the Thing, whereof they would have them have the Idea, and then repeat to them the Name that Jiands for it, as White, Sweet, Milk, Sugar, Cat, Dog. But as for mixd Modes, especially the moji material of them, moral Words, the Sounds are ufually learned firft, and then to know what complex Idea they jl and for, they are either beholden to the Explication of others, or (which happens for the moft Part) are left to their own I " Obfer- ( 64 ) Obfervation and Induftry j which being little laid cut in the Search of the true and preci/e Meaning of Names, thefe moral Words are in mofl Men's Mouths > little more than bare Sounds ; or when they have any, 'tis for the moft Part but a very looje and undetermined, and confequently obfcure and confuted Signification. P. 301. 1. 3.0. 1 1* . i . Speech being the great Bond that holds So- ciety together , and the common Conduit, whereby the Improvements of Knowledge are convey 'djrom one Man and one Generation to another. Mr. Locke ufes the ExprefTion of Conduit Pipes for Language to convey Notions, mix'd Modes or moral Words, from one Man to another in very many Places ; Nay, he aflerts their Ufe even in thinking, for P. 302. 1. 3. c. u. . 5. This Inconvenience (fays he ) in an ill UJe of Words, Menjuf'er in their own private Meditations, &c. P. 304. . 8. laft Line, if Men would /peak intelligibly even to themfelves alone. I think, that Mr. Locke has fpoken home enough to the Point for which I have produced him, fo very home and full, that I {hould have been aftonifh'd at his perfifting in his inviolable Attachment to the Senfes and their Ideas, did I not confider the all-commanding Force of Hypothefis, which is able to overlook, or fancy that it can reconcile the moft glaring Contradictions, and that the ingenious Author himfelf has let us into a great Part of the true Reafon of it, p. 288. 1. 3. c. 9. . 2 1. Here Mr. Locke fays, / muft confejs 'then, that when I frjl began this Di/courje of the Under/landing^ and a good While after y I had not the leaft thought that any Confederation of Words was at all necefjary to it. But when I began, to examine the Extent and Certainty of our Know- ledge, I found it had fo near a Connexion with Words that they fee m' djcarce fe par able - Words interpofe between our Under ft andings and the Truthy like the Medium through which vi/i- ble Objefts pafs, Language the Inftrument of Knowledge. Mr. Locke muft not only have retraced an Hypothefis explicitly, which he had been many Years contriving and communicating in Converfation ; and 1687, he publim'd his Scheme in a fmall Volume in French, and printed it in Holland; and he muft have pull'd down the whole Fabrick, to have raifed a new one of quite another Model in its Stead. Again ft this, almoft all the Affections of the human Mind protefted, Pride and Concern for his Cha- racter, paternal Indulgence and Unwillingnefs to throw down at once the Work of above half a Life towards the latter End of it. It was be- ginning a new Courfe of Study in one's old Age ; fohe thought he falved the Matter tolerably, by treating Words civilly when they came in his Way, and allowing them occalionally their full Scope and Office in conveying Knowledge to the human Mind, and that this would be fufficient to keep the Peace between them, whereas, he has really overthrown the Doctrine of the Senfes being the fole Inlet of Knowledge, more effectu- ally than he has done that of innate Ideas, even K in (66 ) in the Senfe he took them, and has open'd a moft fpacious Avenue through the Mediation of Words, by which, much the greateft, much the moft valuable Part of our Knowledge arrives at us; all indeed that deferves the Name of Knowledge among Men, to which, even Sextus ILmpiricus affents, and produces the Authority of Deniocritus for it, notwithstanding the com- mon Opinion that the Scepticks believed nothing, which would be full as impoffible as the Stoical Apathy; they had heap'd up all the Inftances they could think on, of the Fallibility of each of the Senfes, and they often went too far in that Road j but feveral of their beft Writers allow'd the Certainty of fome intellectual Truths drawn from proper Principles; but it is no Part of my Task now, and probably never will be, to write a Vindication of any particular Pyrrbonift, or a Diflertation to prove it poffible to reprefent the Hypothefis as not altogether irrational, on its Principles taken in their beft Light. Had Mr. Locke fallen on the Confidera- tion of Language, and its feveral necelTary Ufes, to name our Ideas, to receive, record, re- cal for our own Meditation, and communicate Notions from one Man and one Generation to an- other ; had he foon enough known, and at- tended to the Senfe of a remarkable Parenthefis, which he has inferted in Pag. 276. 1. 3. C. 6. 51. in thefe Words (efpecially the Beginners of Languages, if we can imagine any fuch) he had not only avoided all Miftakes, and there 4 are (67 are fome in it, but had alfo made that celebrat- ed Book much more perfect and ufeful than ever it was reprefented by its greateft Admi- rers ; and I heartily lament that he did not per- ceive the near Connexion between our Knowledge andWords^ fo near that they feem fcarce fepara- blc, early enough to have taken Language in, and given it a Place from the Beginning among the Inlets of our intellectual Improvement, the Conduit Pipe of our Knowledge j his fine Genius would have fent it out into the World the moft rimmed Piece that could be wilhed, when he was able to make fo much of it with the Senfes only; or wherever he brought in Words, it was not only inconfiftent with, but utterly deftructive of his Foundation Principle, of his grand Hypothecs, that our Senfes were the only Inlets, and Ideas of Senfation the only Materials of all our Science, of all that we know, of all that we can be taught. I had much rather have had Caufe to admire Mr. Locke's Performance, than to point out any Defects in it, I could lay my Finger on fome of them, and mew that every one of them was occafion- ed by not confidering Language all along as the Conduit Pipe of Knowledge ; but he has taken Notice of it fo often occafionally, and then af- ferted it fo warmly, and proved it fo ftrongly, that I hope, Sir, you think by this Time, that I have kept my Word as to what I promifed in Mr. Locke's Name, and that you'll allow him to be a good Voucher for me. And I hope that K ? you ( 68 ) you will agree with me in this too, rather to take in the ingenious Author's later Difcovery of Words (which he owns Pag. 288. 1. 3. C. 9. 21.) to corredl the Miftakes and fupply the Defects of an imperfect Syftem, rather than to fet his own riper Notions and more juft Obfervations in Battle-array againft the Tenour of the Work, and to overturn abfo- lutely a mofl favourite Hypothecs. I have long obferved that there is no maintaining half a Truth, either the Portion fuftained will be given up in the Difpute, or the Whole mud be aflumed with an ill Grace, when one has been driven to retreat into it for Shelter ; there- fore let us allow Language to pafs for one of Mr. Locke's Inlets of Knowledge, and add it to the other Inlets, which is the Defign of Na- ture, and I think I have proved that it was fo of this Author alfo. If Language be not only expreflive of Ideas, but the Conduit Pipe by which Notions are conveyed from one Man and one Generation to another, and that we cannot think, or as Mr. Locke elegantly Words it, [peak intelligibly to our /elves alone without it; it lecms to me a neceflarily refulting Corollary, that could Men have invented Words (which I can by no Means grant) yet they could not have invented a Language, but only a few Words to call their Ideas of Senfation by, which are always prior to Words in every Man. Nor would lucli Words or Names for mere Ideas of Senfation be ( 69 ) be of any Significancy, fince the true Ufe and Value of Words is to convey fcientifick Notions to us, and to cany on the Commerce of Knowledge between different Men, and the different Generations of Mankind. Letters are the grammatical Elements of Words; and, as fuch, they are neccfTary for a Scholar to begin the Study of a dead Language ; yet Words are as much older than Letters, as the Art of Writing is than that of Printing ; wherefore I doubt whether any Man ever fet himfelf to learn a new Language before Letters were found out ; I am lure no Scholar ever did, for why or how fhould he do it ? Should a Man forget all Lan- guage, which is poffible, and perhaps fome In- fiances might be found of it, no doubt the Words would carry off thofe Notions which they had formerly conveyed to them. Have you not known many who had made fome Ac- quaintance with the Sciences in their younger Years; who in fome Years after their leaving the Univeriity, have loft the Terms and all the little Philofophy they had learnt there ? I will not deny that a Set of Men might frame a new Language, but not without having previoufly a Language to form it by, and, I mould think alfo, Writing, to mark down and retain, for the Ufe of their Memory, fuch new Signs as they agreed were to ftand for the old ones. Mr. Locke has truly affirmed, as already quot- ed, that all the Words in the World cannot convey an Idea of Senfation to a Man who never had it. Nay Nay even where Art makes a great Part of the Thing to be known, no Words can fupply what is fenfible in it, fo as to lay its Idea fairly before the Imagination j as you may obferve in Felibien's two Schemes of Plinys Country - houfe, very different from each other, tho' both drawn from the fame Defcription : And I dare affirm, that if an 100 Architects were fetto the fame Tafk, each of them would give us a Plan different from all the reft, and from P/tnfs Coun- try-houfe. And if Mr. Locke be right in this, as he certainly is, and in making the voluntary , perfectly arbitrary Impofttion of Words, the Conduit of Knowledge ', the great Bond that holds Society together, the Inftrument of Bought, by which ive record our Notions, and /peak intelli- gibly to ourfehes ; if Language, I fay, be all this, as it certainly is, then it is as demonftrably true, that Language could not be a Concert, Contrivance or Invention among Men, as that the Effect cannot produce its efficient Caufe, or (which comes to the fame Point) the neceffiry Inftrument ufed by the Caufe in its Efficiency of that Effect. This I think an Axiom, which though it can't be proved by any Thing plainer than itfelf, yet it can be illuftrated and laid before our Eyes in Inftances and Examples. And I think that every Age and Nation, every Man that ever lived in any, every Thing that any Man knows, every Thing that he does not know, the Greek and Barbarian, the At- tic k flowing Eloquence and Laconick fullen Thrift ( 7' ) Thrift of Words, Mithridates with his twenty two Languages, and the New Guinea Savage with none, are all equally Proofs and Inftances, as well as what I have quoted from Mr. Locke, that the human Mind is a Tabula rafa, -that any Thing may be writ on it, and that it cannot have afty Thing unlefs it be writ there, but will remain a Blank for ever ; that there is a vaft Variety of Infcriptions made on it, which (hews that the Stuff muft be the fame, which is capable of receiving equally fo many Millions of different Impreffions, Colchos an Aflyrius, T^hebh nutritus an Argis. No doubt but in many Nations of the World, as well as Egypt, Greece and Rome, all Sorts of Forms or Impreffions have in fome Proportion been fucceffively received, worn, effaced, renew- ed and blotted out again, tho' often for Want of Hiftory, the particular jflSras and Circum (lances of ail theie Revolutions in Arms, Morals, Arts and Sciences are loft to us. I have obferved* it in fome other Subjects, that when one lights on the true Principle, it will hold every Particular that can be applied to it, which inftead of being an Objection, however it may feem at firft, or with what Intent fo ever produced, rightly confider- ed becomes a Part of the Syftem, an Inflance and Proof of it. Thus the immenfe Variety of Forms proves the Identity of the Materi- als, that is, that Man is capable of every Thing (according to our Way of fpeaking) in Learn- ( 72 ) Learning and Knowledge, by artificial Lan- guage and Inftruction, and of nothing without it What I have faid to you in Obedience to your Commands was ulw. ys my own Opinion, when I confidered how I , .s taught to fpeak and know. And I am as much pleafed, that Mr. Locke found hi:r lelf obliged to take in Words as the Inlet of Notions, as I am really grieved that he did not do it from the Begin- ning 4 becaufe I find the diftinguimmg of the different Inlets of our Notices to be of Ufe to me in njy Reafoning on moft Subjects, and that I am perfuaded, his Pen would have given us an elaborate Treatife on the human Under- flanding. I believe you'll hardly defire any more fuch long Letters as this, which you muft read over out of mere Complaifance, fince you have made me write it ; but if you mould de- fire another from me on the Application of thefe Principles to particular Occafions, you may command me, notwithftanding many trouble- fome Interruptions, which, during my whole Life, have been always breaking in upon the Courfe of my Studies and Thoughts, almoft without Intervals, and thofe very few and (hort ones. But you may perceive by this the Power you haVe over me, and how much I am Yours, &c. PlIILALETHES.