Volume 3

Of the origin and progress of language / [Anon].

  • Monboddo, James Burnett, Lord, 1714-1799.
Date:
1774-1792
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Of the origin and progress of language / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    revered by our anceftors, but now almoft univerfally exploded. It is for the honour of this antient philo- fophy, that there has been no example, as far as I know, of any man learned in it who was addi&ed to that mad philofophy, fo pre¬ valent in our days, which excludes mind from the fyftem of the univerfe. The phi- lofophers of this kind I have treated not only with indignation but contempt, as men of whom it may be truly faid, what Caligula the emperor faid molt falfely of Virgil the poet, that they are nullius in¬ genu et minimae doElrinae. To fuch men, whofe chief motive for publifhing doCtrines fo pernicious to mankind is vanity, and an affectation of fuperior parts, I muff have * given molt deadly offence. In my firft volume, I may be faid to have attacked human vanity, by what I have faid of man in his natural ftate. And, in my fecond volume, I have fhocked the national vanity by the account I have given of our language and poetry, compared with thofe of the antients. But, in this volume, by