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winds. You have told us, what indeed is absolutely necessary for your purpose, that your rule always prevails, or, in the words of your correspondent, (page 67) have boldly declared, not that' expres sions conformable to it will indeed grammatically bear your construction, but that they must and can 'bear no other.' This single passage, therefore, from Deuteronomy, is fatal to your whole scheme,

Thus may any one who does but rely upon the authority of the Port Royal Grammar for the truth of the observation I have quoted above, fairly and fully estimate the value of your notable discovery, and easily detect the fallacy of your boasted rule, without any knowledge of the greek language.

Your correspondent, the 'honest compiler,' who evidently has taken some pains to prove himself a wholesale dealer in greek, has, with great truth, asserted the exact similarity between that language and our own, in this mode of using the article. He says (page 115), that whether the article be prefixed to each of the two nouns, or only to the first, or to neither of them, every one of these forms in greek is to be explained and applied just like our corresponding expressions in english. He therefore cannot possibly avoid the conclusion I have drawn from the english examples, which is so obvious to every one who admits the premises, as he does, that I cannot conceive how he could avoid seeing it of his own accord, but by supposing, what appears probable from other instances, that he had so blinded himself with the dust of fathers and schoolmen, that he could not see an inch before his nose.

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But you, Sir, a dealer in greek in the small way, seem to think much more highly of your stock in trade than those who are more in the wholesale line -no uncommon case-and to imagine, as the retail trader often does, that your little commodity contains some secret, mysterious, and extraordinary virtues, not to be found elsewhere, or by those who know more of the article dealt in. In greek, at least, whatever may be the case in english, you seem to suppose that a man may bid defiance to the rea son, and common sense, and experience of all mankind, and make out any mystery he has a mind for. Though therefore I might here close my correspondence, and safely leave the decision of the ques tion to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting; yet, in deference to your prejudices, I will pursue it further; and, that you may not think I have any intention of putting a slight upon you or your small wares, quitting our vulgar tongue, will talk with you, in my next letter, a little about greek,

LETTER

LETTER II.

Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.-TACITUS.

Qui non satis perspectum habuere το της ελλείψεως μυσήριον, ve

hementer sæpenumero, sive in commentariis, sive in versionibus suis hallucinati sunt, eruentes longe alium a scopo ipsorum auctorum sensum. Contra ea, qui probe versatus fuerit in doctrina ellipsios, facile carebit plurimis grammaticorum regulis, exceptionibus, et observationibus, quarum pleræque falsæ, insulsæ, jejunæ, et inanes -Bos, ELLIPS. GRÆC.

sunt.

Limes erat tenuis longa subnubilus umbra.- -OVID,

Ν

SIR,

IN your opinion the greek language possesses a vast superiority over our own, by means of its article. Had you been better acquainted with that language, you would have known, that the truth lies quite on the other side; and would not have talked, as you have done, concerning the more ac'curate modes of grammatical distinction in the 'greek tongue,' (page 48) and of the superior precision of the greek to the english idiom, in respect to the use of the article, (pages 21, 31, 34, 49, 50). Bishop Lowth, however, who was an able judge of both languages, will inform you of an error which your own knowledge was not sufficient to enable you to discover.

.

At the end of a long note, No. [3.], containing some remarks upon the article, in his English Grammar, he says: "These remarks may serve to shew ".....the near affinity there is between the greek ar❝ticle and the english definite article, and the ex"cellence

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cellence of the english language in this respect, "which, by means of its two articles, docs most pré"cisely determine the extent of signification of com "mon names: whereas the greek has only one ar

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ticle, and it has puzzled all the grammarians to "reduce the use of that to any clear and certain "rules." So that, according to his opinion, there seems to have been no need of your provisional corps, consisting of little transpositions,' (page 21), italics and hooks,' (p. 31), nor of your supplementary proper names (ibid), and possessive pronouns' (see corrected version, No. 5, in your table of contents), and various other ingenious devices, to accommodate and help the english idiom,' (p. 31).

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As to what the bishop says about the grammarians being puzzled to reduce the use of the greek article to any certain rules, it was his misfortune that he did not live to witness the publication of your discovery. Whether he would have changed his note, if he had, and whether he would have applied to so great an adept in the mysteries of omitting and inserting the article in the New Testament, to ascertain why it was omitted before yenlos, in Matt. xi. II. and inserted before expwual in 1 Cor. xv. 8.; why omitted before expw in Matt. xvii. 9, and inserted

* "Good phrases surely are, and ever were, very commend"able. I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a sol"dier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. "Accommodated, that is, when a man is, as they say, accommo«dated; or when a man is, being whereby he may be thought "to be accommodated, which is an excellent thing."

SHAKSPEARE.

before

before the same word in chap. xxvii. 64, of the same writer; why in Matt. xx. 3. 6. we have wep THY τρίτην, από την ενδεκάτην ώραν with articles, but in the gth verse of the same chapter, περι έκλην και εννάτην ώρα without; why the article is found before walng and

προσευχή

ning in Exod. xx. 12. Deut. xxi. 13. Ps. xxvii. 10. Mark v. 40, but not found before the same words in Genes. xx. 12. xlix. 26. Exod. xxi. 15, 16. Mark vii. 10.; why it occurs before the words vns and in 1 Cor. vii. 5, but not in Matt. xvii. 21.; and lastly, whether any deep and hidden mysteries, or sublime doctrines, lurked beneath the omission and insertion of it before the very same word S, in the same verse, Matt. xii. 28. Joh. i. 1. iii. 2. Acts vii. 55. I say, Sir, whether his lordship would have made application to you for the solution of these difficulties, or whether he would have contented himself, even after he had seen your surprising penetration in these matters, with thinking that no great precision was to be expected from the sacred writers in such trifles, and that the truths which they taught mankind, were not of a nature to de rive either good or harm from any such petty con, siderations, must now be left to conjecture.

Whatever he might have done, I am of opinion, and must continue so, till you, or some other oracle, shall answer the foregoing questions, in a way more satisfactory and less ambiguous than usual, that he had good ground for insinuating, as he seems to do, that it is a very puzzling thing to invent a mechanical power which shall screw down any writer of greek, however precise and formal, more especially

such

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