preceding syllable, when the vowel of that syllable is pronounced short. Particles in Composition, though followed by a wowel, generally remain undivided in spelling. A mute generally unites with a liquid following; and a liquid, or a mute, generally separates from a mute following: le and re are never separated from a preceding mute. Example: Ma-ni-fest, ex-e-cra-ble, un-e-qual, mis-ap-ply, dis-tin-guish, cor-res-pond-ing.

But the best and easiest rule for dividing the syllables in spelling, is to divide them as they are naturally divided in a right pronunciation; without regard to the derivation of words, or the possible combination of consonants at the beginning of a syllable.

WORDS.

WORDS are articulate sounds, used by common consent as signs of ideas or notions.

There are in English nine sorts of Words, or, as they are commonly called, Parts of Speech.

1. The ARTICLE; prefixed to substantives, when they are common names of things, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends.

2. The SUBSTANTIVE, or NOUN; being the name of any thing conceived to subsist, or of which we have any notion.

3. The PRONOUN; standing instead of the noun.

4. The ADJECTIVE; added to the noun to express the quality of it.

5. The VERB, or word, by way of eminence; signifying to be, to do, or to suffer.

6. The ApVERB; added to verbs, and also to adjectives and other adverbs, to express some circumstance belonging to them.

7. The PREPOSITION; put before nouns and pronouns

chiefly,

chiefly, to connect them with other words, and to show their relation to those words.

8. The CONJUNCTION; connecting sentences together. 9. The INTERJECTION; thrown in to express the affection of the speaker, though unnecessary with respect to the construction of the sentence.

The power of speech is a faculty peculiar to man, and

7

3

7

2

7

1

was bestowed on him by his beneficent Creator for the

greatest and most excellent uses; but, alas! how often do

In the foregoing sentence, the Words the, a, are articles; power, speech, faculty, man, creator, uses, purposes, are Substantives; him, his, we, it, are Pronouns; peculiar, beneficent, greatest, excellent, worst, are Adjectives; is, was, bestowed, do, pervert, are Verbs; most, how, often, are Adverbs; of, to, on, by, for, are Prepositions; and, but, are Conjunctions; and alas is an Interjection.

The Substantives, power, speech, faculty, and the rest, are General, or Common, Names of things; whereof there are many sorts belonging to the same kind; or many individuals belonging to the same sort; as there are many sorts of power, many sorts of speech, many sorts of faculty, many individuals of that sort of animal called man; and so on. These general or common names are here applied in a more or less extensive signification; according as they are used without either, or with the one, or with the other, of the two Articles a' and the. The words speech, man, being accompanied with no article, are taken.

VOL. I.

L

in

in their largest extent; and signify all of the kind or sort ; all sorts of speech and all men. The word faculty, with the article a before it, is used in a more confined signification, for some one out of many of that kind; for it is here implied, that there are other faculties peculiar to man beside speech. The words, power, creator, uses, purposes, with the article the before them, (for his Creator is the same as the Creator of him,) are used in the most confined signification, for the things here mentioned and ascertained: the power is not any one indeterminate power out of many sorts, but that particular sort 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 uses and purposes; the former are explained to be those in particular, that are the greatest and most excellent; such, for instance, as the glory of God, and the common benefit of mankind; the latter to be the worst, as lying, slandering, blaspheming, and the like.

The pronouns, him, his, we, it, stand instead of some of the noans, or substantives, going before them; as, him supplies 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 speaker ;) it, of the power, before mentioned. If, instead of these pronouns, the nouns for which they stand had been used, the sense would have been the same; but the frequent repetition of the same words would have been disagreeable 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 several substantives, to denote the character and quality of each.

The Verbs, is, was bestowed, do pervert, signify severally, being, suffering, and doing. By the first it is implied, that there is such a thing as the power of speech, and it is affirmed to be of such a kind; namely, a faculty pecu

liar to man by the second it is said to have been acted upon, or to have had something done to it: namely, to have been bestowed on man: by the last we are said to act upon it, or to do something to it; namely, to pervert it.

The Adverbs, most, often, are added to the adjective excellent, and to the verb pervert, to show the circumstance 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 question is made by the adverb how added to the adverb often.

The Prepositions, of, to, on, by, for, placed before the substantives and pronouns, speech, man, him, &c. connect them with other words, substantives, adjectives, and verbs; as, power, peculiar, bestowed, &c. and show 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 possession, or the belonging of one thing to another.

The Conjunctions, and, and but, connect the three parts of the sentence together; the first more closely, both with regard to the sentence and the sense; the second connecting the parts of the sentence, though less strictly, and at the same time expressing an opposition in the sense.

The Interjection, alas! expresses the concern and regret of the speaker; and though thrown in with propriety, yet might have been omitted, without injuring the construction of the sentence, or destroying the sense.

ARTICLE.

THE ARTICLE is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends.

In English there are but two articles, a, and the: a be

comes an before a vowel, y and w excepted; and before a silent h preceding a vowel.

A is used in a vague sense to point out one single thing of the kind, in other respects indeterminate: the determines what particular thing is ineaned.

A substantive, without any article to limit it, is taken in its widest sense: thus man means all mankind; as, "The proper study of mankind is man.

Pope

Where mankind and man may change places, without making any alteration in the sense. A man means some 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 *.

Example:

* "And I persecuted this way unto the death." Acts, xxii. 4. The Apostle does not mean any particular sort of death, but death in general: the Definite Article therefore is improperly used. It ought to be unto death, without any Article: agreeably to the Original; axpı Gavalu. See also,

2 Chron. xxxii. 24.

"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John xvi. 13. That is, according to this translation, into all Truth whatsoever, into Truth of all kinds : very different from the meaning of the Evangelist, and from the Original; sis waσan TMm aksas, 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 character of Jesus, as the Son of God in a peculiar and incommunicable sense: whereas, it is probable, both from the circumstances of the History, and from the expression of the Original, (vio; e, a Son of God, or of a God, not 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 the Sons of Gods in the Pagan Theology. This is also more agreeable to St. Luke's account of the confession of the Centurion :: "Certainly this was dixaos, a righteous man;" not Aman, the Just one. The same 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 expressed by the indefinite Article, like a Son of God; una tv, as Theodotion