om what
appear to be its real defects, from all lasting and rational causes of
dislike or disgust) because such men hourly communicate with the best
objects from which the best part of language is originally derived;
and because, from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow
circle of their intercourse, being less under the action of social
vanity, they convey their feelings and notions in simple and
unelaborated expressions.' To this I reply; that a rustic's language,
purified from all provincialism and grossness, and so far
reconstructed as to be made consistent with the rules of
grammar--(which are in essence no other than the laws of universal
logic, applied to psychological materials)--will not differ from the
language of any other man of common sense, however learned or refined
he may be, except as far as the notions, which the rustic has to
convey, are fewer and more indiscriminate. This will become still
clearer, if we add the consideration--(equally important though less
obvious)--that the rustic, from the more imperfect development of his
faculties, and from the lower state of their cultivation, aims almost
solely to convey insulated facts, either those of his scanty
experience or his traditional belief; while the educated man chiefly
seeks to discover and express those connexions of things, or those
relative bearings of fact to fact, from which some more or less
general law is deducible. For facts are valuable to a wise man,
chiefly as they lead to the discovery of the indwelling law, which is
the true being of things, the sole solution of their modes of
existence, and in the knowledge of which consists our dignity and our
power.

As little can I agree with the assertion, that from the objects with
which the rustic hourly communicates the best part of language is
formed. For first, if to communicate with an object implies such an
acquaintance with it, as renders it capable of being discriminately
reflected on; the distinct knowledge of an uneducated rustic would
furnish a very scanty vocabulary. The few things and modes of action
requisite for his bodily conveniences would alone be individualized;
while all the rest of nature would be expressed by a small number of
confused general terms. Secondly, I deny that the words and
combinations of words derived from the objects, with which the rustic
is familiar, whether with distinct or confused knowledge, can be
justly said to form the best part of langu