afcertained: the power is not any one indeterminate power out of many forts, but that particular fort of power here specified; namely, the power of speech; the creator is the One great Creator of man and of all things: the uses, and the purposes, are particular ufes and purposes; the former are explained to be thofe in particular, that are the greatest and most excellent; fuch, for instance, as the glory of God, and the common benefit of mankind; the latter to be the worst, as lying, flandering, blafpheming, and the like.

The pronouns, him, his, we, it, ftand instead of fome of the nouns, or fubftantives, going before them; as, him fupplies the place of man; his of man's; we, of men, implied in the general name man, including all men, (of which number is the fpeaker ;) it, of the power, before mentioned. If, instead of these pronouns, the nouns for which they stand had been used, the fense would have been the fame; but the frequent repetition of the fame words would have been difagreeable and tedious: as, The power of speech peculiar to man, bestowed on man, by man's Creator, &c.

The Adjectives, peculiar, beneficent, greatest, excellent, worst, are added to their feveral fubftantives, to denote the character and quality of each.

The

The Verbs, is, was bestowed, do pervert, fignify feverally, being, fuffering, and doing. By the firft it is implied, that there is fuch a thing as the power of speech, and it is affirmed to be of fuch a kind; namely, a faculty peculiar to man : by the fecond it is faid to have been acted upon, or to have had fomething done to it: namely, to have been bestowed on man: by the laft we are faid to act upon it, or to do fomething to it; namely, to pervert it.

The Adverbs, most, often, are added to the adjective excellent, and to the verb pervert, to fhew the circumftance belonging to them; namely, that of the highest degree to the former, and that of frequency to the latter; concerning the degree of which frequency also a queftion is made by the adverb how added to the adverb often.

The Prepofitions, of, to, on, by, for, placed before the fubftantives and pronouns, Speech, man, him, &c. connect them with other words, fubftantives, adjectives, and verbs; as, power, peculiar, beftowed, &c. and fhew the relation, which they have to those words; as the relation of subject, object, agent, end; for denoting the end, by the agent, on the object; to and of denote poffeffion, or the belonging of one thing to another.

The Conjunctions, and, and but, connect the three parts of the fentence together; the first more closely, both with regard to the fentence and the fenfe; the fecond connecting the parts of the fentence, though lefs ftrictly, and at the fame time expreffing an oppofition in the fenfe.

The Interjection alas! expreffes the concern and regret of the fpeaker; and though thrown in with propriety, yet might have been omitted, without injuring the conftruction of the fentence, or destroying the sense.

THE

ARTICLE.

HE ARTICLE is a word prefixed to subftantives, to point them out, and to shew how far their fignification extends.

In English there are but two articles, a, and the: a becomes an before a vowel, y and w [2] excepted; and before a filent h preceding a vowel.

A is used in a vague sense to point out one fingle thing of the kind, in other respects inde

[2] The pronunciation of y, or w, as part of a diphthong at the beginning of a word, requires fuch an effort in the conformation of the parts of the mouth, as does not eafily admit of the article an before them. In other cafes the article an in a manner coalefces with the vowel which it precedes: in this, the effort of pronunciation separates the article, and prevents the difagreeable confequence of a fenfible hiatus.

terminate :

terminate the determines what particular thing is meaned.

A fubftantive, without any article to limit it, is taken in its wideft fenfe: thus man means all mankind; as,

"The proper ftudy of mankind is man."

Pope. Where mankind and man may change places, without making any alteration in the fenfe. A man means fome one or other of that kind, indefinitely; the man means, definitely, that particular man, who is spoken of: the former therefore is called the Indefinite, the latter the Definite Article [3].

Example :

[3]" And I perfecuted this way unto the death.” Acts, xxii. 4. The Apostle does not mean any particular fort of death, but death in general: the Definite Article therefore is improperly used. It ought to be anto death, without any Article: agreeably to the Original, axe Javals. See alfo, 2 Chron. xxii. 24.

"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John xvi. 13. That is, according to this tranflation, into all Truth whatsoever, into Truth of all kinds : very different from the meaning of the Evangelift, and from the Original, i waoaï y aλndav, into all the Truth; that is, into all Evangelical Truth.

Truly this was the Son of God." Matt. xxvii. 54. and Mark, xv. 39. This translation supposes, that the Roman Centurion had a proper and adequate notion of

the

Example: "Man was made for fociety, and ought to extend his good will to all men: but a

man

the character of Jefus, as the Son of God in a peculiar and incommunicable fense: whereas, it is probable, both from the circumstances of the History, and from the expreffion of the Original, (vios ee, a Son of God, or of a God, not i vios, the Son,) that he only meaned to acknowledge him to be an extraordinary person, and more than a mere man; according to his own notion of Sons of Gods in the Pagan Theology. This is alfo more agreeable to St. Luke's account of the confeffion of the Centurion : " Certainly this was Sizatos, a righteous man ;” not & Aixaios, the Just one. The fame may be observed of Nebuchadnezzar's word, Dan. iii. 25. "And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God:" it ought to be expreffed by the indefinite Article, like a Son of God; pola is, as Theodotion very properly renders it: that is, like an Angel; according to Nebuchadnezzar's own account of it in the 28th verfe: " Blessed be God, who hath fent his Angel, and delivered his fervants." See also Luke xix. 9.

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" Popt. It ought to be, the wheel; ufed as an inftrument for the particular purpose of torturing Criminals; as Shakespear;

"Let them pull all about mine ears; present me Death on the wheel, or at wild horfes heels.' "God Almighty hath given reason to a man to be a light unto him." Hobbes, Elements of Law, Part I. Chap. v. 12. It should rather be, "to man," in general.

B

Thefe