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Page 8
There being therefore nothing in the world of which they could have fram'd
a more distinct Idea, then of the _motion_ of bodies; which is obvious to
all the senses, we must not wonder if considering Locall motion as the
first and principall object of their knowledge, they afterwards gave no
names to the Operations of each being, but such as seem'd to express some
relation either to motion in generall, or to its different species, or to
some one of its dependances such as are place, figure, situation,
extention, Union and seperation, in a word to all the resemblances and
agreements that in any way or kind relye upon motion. For if Modern
Philosophy that Studies Nature by a closer application then formerly,
pretend to a clear and evident explication of Naturall effects in the
referring them all to the _Sole movement of matter_ as their true cause;
there is much more reason that in order to the giveing an account of all
that is to this day past among the Languages, we should have recours to
such terms as are expressive of motion, since it is not to be doubted but
that all others that are reducible, may be referr'd hither as to the first
principle of their signfication.
Besides motion is allow'd a far greater Scope and extent among the
Languages then in Nature for 'tis to that we referr our most refin'd and
spirituall conceptions I mean such as we frame of the operations of our
souls and the propensions of our wills, So when we say that the mind or
understanding applyes it self to think, to conceive, to discours, to
explaine, to disimbroile, to disingage a businesse, to discover a truth;
when we talke of troubles, aversions, of hurries and consternations of the
soul, to expresse such actions as are most remote from sense, we make use
of such Images as are corporeall in their first originall, although for the
most part they have lost their proper significance to assume another that
is purely figurative.
'Tis by their Principles I reduce to naturall reason all imaginable ways by
which words alter their primitive signification to imbrace another, either
more inlarg'd or reserv'd, or never so little diversifi'd either in
Proportion or Alliance; for tis no easie matter for words to travell from
one Country to another without meeting with the same casualties, that use
to befall forreign Plants which, are seldome remov'd into a new soile, but
degenerate and either lose some of their Native virtue, or acquire some
new. But most people having met wich this generally proposall, to expresse
at first appearance, what they think with as little trouble as is possible,
it thence falls out that to ingrosse a great deal of sense in a few words,
they scarce allow enough precisely to marke out the simple ideas of their
minds, fitted out to all their severall resemblances, they that are most
simple in themselves, are commonly compounds in their significations,
neither is there any one of the least considerable, but what is diversify'd
in each Language by a thousand different modifications.
From thence proceed all the methods of inflexion, derivation, and
composition that give being to the most subtle kind of Sophistry; all the
species and forms of Nouns, Verbs, and particles that make up the oeconomy
of a Language, together withall diversity of Numbers, Genders, Cases,
tenses, Modes, and Persons which have more of Art than at first sight is
imagin'd, for the Custome of Nations hath not only authoriz'd these
inventions to vary the Cadence of words, but with an admirable facility to
expresse all the deflexions, by which an Idea of the same object may be
represented to our conceptions according as it admitts of a mixture of
resemblances, which it may have either to its effects or Causes, or as it
is related to the severall estates, wherein it subsists, to the differences
of time or place, and to all the circumstances that may accompany it,
either within or without us. As the more sensible differences of the
Languages principally consist in all these modifications; so one of the
greatest secrets of this Art is to know how choisly to select and
distinguish, both in our ideas and in the words that expresse them, that
which is principall and essentiall from what is purely accessory, subtly to
difference the first ideas from the second, the second from the third, the
simple from the Compound, the primitive and Originall signification from
its dependences and references, its modifications and divers restrictions,
in one word (if I may so expresse it) not to confound the habit with the
person. For in a manner these modifications are the same words, that the
habit is to the body; this new dresse that is given to forreign words to
fitt them up alamode to the Country, for the most part time so disfigures
them and renders them so obscure, that they impose as well upon our eyes as
ears, and passe for origalls and Natives of the Country, although in
reality they are borrow'd from our Neighbourhood, and sometime from beyond
the seas.
To make a secure judgement therefore of the originall, there remains
nothing but to consider them all, naked and intirely disspoil'd of all that
trompery that disguis'd them; and that this may be done with more safety we
must follow them step by step in their travels, and espie out the different
ranges they have taken and the habits they have shifted, to come thus
vizarded and masqued to us.
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