word, and all, except the
last three, express the same kind of action. They differ from each other
only in the termination. These changes in termination are produced on
the word in order to make it correspond with the various _persons_ who
speak, the _number_ of persons, or the _time_ of speaking; as, _I_
speak, _thou_ speak_est_, the _man_ speak_eth_, or speak_s_, the _men_
speak, _I_ sp_oke_; The speak_er_ speak_s_ another speak_er's_ spe_ech_.

The third part of Etymology, which is intimately connected with the
second, will be more amply expanded in Lecture XIV, and in the
Philosophical notes; but I shall not treat largely of that branch of
derivation which consists in tracing words to foreign languages. This is
the province of the lexicographer, rather than of the philologist. It is
not the business of him who writes a practical, English grammar, to
trace words to the Saxon, nor to the Celtic, the Greek, the Dutch, the
Mexican, nor the Persian; nor is it his province to explain their
meaning in Latin, French, or Hebrew, Italian, Mohegan, or Sanscrit; but
it is his duty to explain their properties, their powers, their
connexions, relations, dependancies, and, bearings, not at the period in
which the Danes made an irruption into the island of Great Britain, nor
in the year in which Lamech paid his addresses to Adah and Zillah, but
_at the particular period in which he writes_. His words are already
derived, formed, established, and furnished to his hand, and he is bound
to take them and explain them as he finds them _in his day_, without any
regard to their ancient construction and application.

CLASSIFICATION. In arranging the parts of speech, I conceive it to be
the legitimate object of the practical grammarian, to consult _practical
convenience_. The true principle of classification seems to be, not a
reference to essential differences in the _primitive_ meaning of words,
nor to their original combinations, but to the _manner in which they are
at present employed_. In the early and rude state of society, mankind
are quite limited in their knowledge, and having but few ideas to
communicate, a small number of words answers their purpose in the
transmission of thought. This leads them to express their ideas in
short, detached sentences, requiring few or none of those _connectives_,
or words of transition, which are afterwards introduced into language by
refinement, and which contribute so largely to its perspicuity a