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AS CONNECTED WITH THE

Faculties of the Mind,

AND AS APPLIED TO

THINGS IN NATURE AND ART.

SOCIA MENTIS LINGUA.

amil

BY WILLIAM S. CARDELL.

1

NEW-YORK.

CHARLES WILEY, No. 3 WALL-STREET.

1825.

Southern District of New-York, ss.

B 1825, in the forty-ninth year of the independence of the United States

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the sixteenth day of February, A. D.

of America, William S Cardell, of the said District, has deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:

"Essay on Language, as connected with the Faculties of the Mind, and as applied to things in Nature and Art. Socia mentis lingua. By William S. Cardell "

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled "an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement ofLearning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints " JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

J. SEYMOUR, PRINTER, JOHN-STREET.

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Introductory dissertation,

General view of language as intimately combined with
the mental powers, the instruction and welfare of na-
tions, and the whole social and commercial intercourse
of rational beings,
Structure of speech in its earliest known forms, deduced
from the nature and wants of man, and the condition of
savage life,
Brief history of the progress of letters, from the time of
their invention, with a slight notice of the changes to
which language has been subjected from political and
moral causes,

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General character of the English language, and its his-
tory, from the invasion of England by Julius Cesar, to
the present time,

Philosophic exposition of speech in its practical adapta-

ib.

13

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ously called auxiliaries,

Verb to be,

Words of relation and description, adjectives,

Actions or affirmations-verbs,

Logic and philosophic elucidation of moods and tenses,

Etymons and practical explanations of the words errone-

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44

ib.

ib.

62

66

107

121

138

141

165

ib.

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193

Specimens giving a slight view of the changes in language, 194

Examples of errors in practice,

203

PREFACE.

THIS Essay is not offered as a finished work; though the opinions advanced have not been hastily adopted, and it is believed they are substantially correct. The writer is sensible he has not done justice to his own principles; and the work would not have been made public, with all its present defects, if other arduous and indispensable engagements had not precluded the hope of devoting attention to this volume, for a considerable time to

come.

A few preliminary ideas will indicate the general design of this treatise, and will show that, however its doctrines may differ from those heretofore taught, they are not advanced without regard to existing f acts.

Language, the chief instrument of all knowledge, must itself be the subject of interesting inquiry on scientific principles. Instead of treating words as the theme of contempt, and explaining them according to the metaphysics of the twelfth century, it is time that the modes of investigation, adopted in other philosophic researches should be applied to the structure of speech. A comprehensive plan of induction was attempted; and as the proper means to be employed for this purpose, a careful attention

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