391. The Jews still exist as a distinct people in all parts of the world, over which they are dispersed, according to ancient prophecy, preserving every where their religion and original language.

392. In Turkey, and in most parts of Asia and Africa, the religion of Mahomet, an Arabian impostor of the 7th century, still prevails; and descendants of Mahomet still occupy several Asiatic and African thrones, as sultans, emperors, &c.

393. In China, the national religion is founded on the pure belief of ONE GOD; and on the moral writings of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher.

In India, many superstitions and much idolatry prevail; but the effect tends to maintain subordination and industry; while it teaches peace among men, and charity even to animals and insects.

394. In other nations, Christianity is silently working its way among the people; and civilization and christianity appear happily to go hand-in-hand in Africa, in America, and among the South Sea islanders, the majority of whom entertain the grossest superstitions and idolatries.

Obs. For all necessary knowledge on the subject of theology, and as a general note book to the Bible, and to all religious inquiries, consult Dr. Robinson's Theological Dictionary.

XVI. Grammar.

395. The power of communicating ideas by speech is peculiar to man; but it is a power on which depends his improvement in all the arts; because the gradation and accumulation of improvements depend on cooperation and continuation.

Neither could exist, if the power were not attained of describing improvements to the living, and of transmitting them to posterity.

396. The language of savage nations is, however, very limited they are able to call a few hundred things by their names; to express some qualities; and

name a few modes of action; but they express more by gesture than by sound: few of them can count above ten; and when desired to express a higher number, they shew the hair of their heads.

397. The most ancient languages consisted of two or three hundred monosyllables, expressing general ideas as air, sea, tree, man, GoD, house, good, bad, &c. and all other words, by a systematic combination, were formed out of these:-such were the Welsh, Chinese, and some other languages.

398. The first sound used by savages, were mere cries of pleasure and pain; as Oh! Ah! and such other words, called INTERJECTIONS.

They next named visible objects; as river, tree, grass, &c. thereby introducing a new class of words, called

NOUNS.

They then derived from nouns, a class of words to express corresponding actions; as walk, talk, eat, drink, &c. called VERBS.

399. The next class of words were intended to describe the qualities of nouns and verbs; as tall, swift, short, fast, &c. called ad-NOUNS and ad-VERBS.

Words, to describe the position of nouns in regard to each other; as to, from, above, below, &c. were also among those necessary to a language, and these were called pre-POSITIONS.

400. The seventh class was a mere refinement of speech, and consisted of words used in place of nouns ; as he, she, it, they, &c. called pro-NOUNS.

The eighth class was intended to give precision to the noun; as a man, or the man, and were, therefore,

call ARTICLES.

And the ninth class consisted solely of words intended to join others together in a discourse; as and, because, but, yet, &c. and are called CONJUNC-tions.

401. Such were the origin and progress of speech; and such, without variation, is the general composition of language. The English, and most other lan

guages, contain nine kinds of words, or parts of speech, named as above; and the science of grammar merely supplies general rules for their arrangement and gov

ernment.

402. The classification of all words into nine kinds, enables grammarians to simplify the rules which direct the construction of language; and instead of a rule for every word, a few rules, are all that become necessary to regulate fifty thousand words.

Obs. For the details of grammer, I must refer the student to my own Practical Grammar; or to any other modern grammar which is not too long and complex. My own Grammar is in its sixth edition; and has been most flatteringly received by many eminent schoolmasters.

403. All names of things, are called nouns or substantives; all qualities of things, are called ad-nouns, or adjectives.

All actions are expressed by verbs.

All verbs which modify actions or qualities, are called ad-verbs.

All words, which describe the position of persons and things, are called pre-positions.

All words, which are used instead of nouns, or for nouns, are called pro-nouns.

All words, which are used to join sentences or parts of sentences. are called conjunctions.

The words a or an, and the, are called articles. The exclamatory words, which express earnestness or surprise, are called interjections.

404. The first written signs of words were hireroglyphics or characters, which represented the object named by the character; and, of course, there were nearly as many characters as ideas. The characters now used for the signs of the Zodiac and the Planets are specimens of this kind of character; and so is a circle or snake, when used to signify eternity.

405. The invention of letters, by combining which all sounds could be represented, is ascribed to some

wise man in the reign of Cadmus, king of Thebes. This simple contrivance facilitated the propagation and preservation of knowledge, by enabling us to express a million of words, if we desired it, by the various combination of only twenty-four or five char

acters.

Obs. 1.—In the Greek Language there are twenty-four letters; of which seven are vowels, and seventeen conso. nants:

The vowels are a, ε, η, ι, o, v, ω.

2. The following is the ancient Hebrew Alphabet of twenty-two letters, of which five are vowels, and the rest are con sonants.

The vowels are 8, 7, 1, `, y.

406. The English language consists of about forty thousand words; and is derived from the Celtic, Gothic, and Latin; successively incorporated by the Welsh, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans; and by the terms used in the sciences, derived from the Greek, French, Italian, and German languages.

407. Grammar, in a limited sense, is the art which teaches the construction of phrases and sentences; but, in an extended sense it embraces the whole science of language.

The study of language is properly divided into the seven following branches :-Orthoepy, Orthography, Accidence, Syntax, Prosody, Rhetoric and Composition.