ess variety in the
combinations of either, they coincide in a most admirable manner, to effect
the great object for which language was bestowed or invented; namely, to
furnish a sure medium for the communication of thought, and the
preservation of knowledge.

13. All languages, however different, have many things in common. There are
points of a philosophical character, which result alike from the analysis
of any language, and are founded on the very nature of human thought, and
that of the sounds or other signs which are used to express it. When such
principles alone are taken as the subject of inquiry, and are treated, as
they sometimes have been, without regard to any of the idioms of particular
languages, they constitute what is called General, Philosophical, or
Universal Grammar. But to teach, with Lindley Murray and some others, that
"Grammar may be considered as _consisting of two species_, Universal and
Particular," and that the latter merely "applies those general principles
to a particular language," is to adopt a twofold absurdity at the
outset.[2] For every cultivated language has its particular grammar, in
which whatsoever is universal, is necessarily included; but of which,
universal or general principles form only a part, and that comparatively
small. We find therefore in grammar no "two species" of the same genus; nor
is the science or art, as commonly defined and understood, susceptible of
division into any proper and distinct sorts, except with reference to
different languages--as when we speak of Greek, Latin, French, or English
grammar.

14. There is, however, as I have suggested, a certain science or philosophy
of language, which has been denominated Universal Grammar; being made up of
those points only, in which many or all of the different languages
preserved in books, are found to coincide. All speculative minds are fond
of generalization; and, in the vastness of the views which may thus be
taken of grammar, such may find an entertainment which they never felt in
merely learning to speak and write grammatically. But the pleasure of such
contemplations is not the earliest or the most important fruit of the
study. The first thing is, to know and understand the grammatical
construction of our own language. Many may profit by this acquisition, who
extend not their inquiries to the analogies or the idioms of other tongues.
It is true, that every item of grammatical doctrine is the more worthy to
be k